123: Chapter 123 Ten Million Spirit Crystals!

His movements lacked any real technique; he was simply relying on his Gold-grade brute strength and energy to slash and kill indiscriminately. It was heart-stopping to watch. Several times, he narrowly missed the monster's sharp claws, causing her breath to hitch.

The fingers on her bowstring nearly slipped from their target several times.

Fortunately... fortunately, he was safe. This thought almost became one of the beliefs that sustained her as she loosed that decisive arrow.

Lin Tian looked at the undeniable determination in the young girl's eyes, and the deep, complex emotions welling up from within—a mix of worry, lingering fear, and something he couldn't quite define yet. The softest part of his heart was struck hard.

All his teasing and lightheartedness vanished.

He withdrew the hand that had been ruffling her hair and instead gently cupped her cheeks, his thumb tenderly wiping away a smudge of dirt that had appeared at the corner of her eye at some point.

He looked at her with an incredibly serious gaze and solemnly promised, "Alright, I promise you. From now on... I'll try not to be so reckless. I'll listen to our Lin Yin."

"Really?" Lin Yin's eyes lit up, as if she hadn't expected him to agree so readily.

"Really, truer than real gold." Lin Tian laughed. This time, his smile lacked exhaustion, holding only pure gentleness and indulgence. "Go wash up and rest. Look at you, your face is all dirty."

Receiving his affirmative reply, a smile instantly blossomed on Lin Yin's face, as clear and bright as melting ice or moonlight breaking through the clouds. She nodded vigorously: "Mm! Brother Tian, you should rest early too!"

Only then did she seem to have completed some great mission. Her whole demeanor lightened, and she turned and walked toward her room with a skip in her step to get fresh clothes.

By the time Lin Yin finished washing up, changed into a clean nightgown, and emerged with the fresh, damp scent of a bath, Lin Tian was still in the living room, checking the situation of other lords in the Regional Chat Channel by the light.

"Brother Tian, goodnight." Lin Yin stood at the doorway of her room and said softly.

"Goodnight, go to sleep now. Don't think about anything else." Lin Tian looked up, smiled gently at her, and waved his hand.

Watching the door to Lin Yin's room gently close, Lin Tian stood there for a while longer before putting down the report and dragging his own exhausted body off to wash up.

The warm water rushed over his body, washing away the blood, dirt, and fatigue, but it couldn't wash away the thoughts churning in his mind.

Lin Tian lay on the bed, staring at the blurred outline of the ceiling in the darkness. Everything that had happened during the day and night flashed before his eyes like a revolving lantern.

"Beast tide... Gold 9-star... losses of epic troops... territory development... Lord Su Wan's alliance... and that so-called Minotaur Kingdom..."

Various pieces of information, crises, responsibilities, and future possibilities were intertwined like a tangled mess. Excitement, lingering fear, heaviness, pressure, and a faint anticipation for the future... all sorts of emotions welled up in a complex mix.

He knew that tonight's victory was only the first step toward establishing a firm foothold on this Eternal Continent, and this step had come at a heavy cost.

The real challenge would perhaps only truly begin when the sun rose tomorrow.

Outside the window, the night was as thick as ink, but the clamor of the slaughter had completely settled. Only the wailing of the wind occasionally sweeping past the eaves remained, along with the brief, hushed conversations of soldiers changing shifts on the distant city walls.

Lin Tian lay in the darkness, eyes open, with no sleepiness at all.

The intensity of organizing a hundred-thousand-strong army during the day, the panic of facing the Fear Demon Ape at midnight, the heart-wrenching moment when Lin Feng's battle soul was about to dissipate. The tragedy of his comrades throwing themselves into a fight to the death, and that fatal silver thread condensed from moonlight that Lin Yin loosed before she exhausted her strength...

And then, during the final headcount, those empty ranks and the more than forty thousand soldiers who would never return. These images, these sounds, played over and over in his mind like a revolving lantern.

Closing his eyes, he saw the moment the city wall crumbled, and the dazed look in the soldiers' eyes as they fell. His heart felt like it was stuffed with water-soaked cotton—heavy, suffocating, and unable to breathe.

"It would be strange if I could fall asleep at a time like this..." He stared at the ceiling and silently tugged at the corner of his mouth.

Those survivors in the Regional Chat Channel probably wouldn't be able to lie down peacefully either. The adrenaline of surviving a disaster, the grief of losing comrades, the confusion and fear for the future... it was enough to keep anyone awake all night.

Since he couldn't sleep, he decided not to bother. Lin Tian sat up, and by the faint light filtering in from outside the window, he pulled up the system panel. The glow illuminated his expressionless face.

It was time to settle the accounts and see if he had lost or... Hmm?

He first looked at the strength improvement column. [Lin Tian: Gold 6-star] [Lin Feng: Gold 3-star] [Lin Yan: Gold 2-star] [Commander Lin Yu: Silver 9-star]

Below that was a long list of soldiers who had broken through the Gold threshold. There weren't many, about a dozen, all elite veterans who had fought their way through the bloody battles.

As for the remaining fifty thousand or so soldiers in the entire legion, thanks to this high-intensity, cross-level combat, even the lowest-ranked had soared to above Bronze 3-star.

The increase in strength was terrifying. Especially for himself, following Lin Yin from Gold 2-star to Gold 6-star—even riding a rocket wouldn't be this fast.

But looking at these numbers, Lin Tian felt no joy, only a heavy, complicated feeling. This was a level built on the lives of over forty thousand people, on the desperate fighting of Lin Yin and Lin Feng, and on the fall of countless epic troops.

He exhaled, swiped his finger, and looked at the resource gains. [Low-grade Spirit Crystal × 10 million] [mid-level spirit crystal × 20,000] [Five Elements Elemental Crystal × 250]

"Hiss..." Even though he was mentally prepared, seeing the over ten million Low-grade Spirit Crystals and more than twenty thousand mid-level spirit crystals, Lin Tian couldn't help but gasp.

When he saw the neatly arranged 250 crystals emitting different elemental fluctuations, his eyes lit up. "As expected, killing Gold-grade monsters always drops elemental crystals! It seems the Minotaur chieftain from before wasn't an exception."

He stroked his chin, feeling more confident. This was of great significance for cultivating high-tier troops in the future.

However... "What about treasure chests? Not a single one dropped from the Gold-grade monsters? Not even Silver ones?"

He flipped through the harvest list, confirming that apart from spirit crystals and elemental crystals, there was absolutely nothing else. "It seems this is a special mechanism of tonight's 'beast tide'; it only drops basic resources and elemental essence, without giving a chance to gamble on opening chests."

Lin Tian quickly figured it out. He wasn't disappointed; rather, he felt it was reasonable. If a pile of treasure chests really had dropped, and he opened them to find random junk, it might not have been as useful as these tangible crystals and spirit crystals.

"That's fine, saves me from having to rely on luck; my luck has always been quite bad."