26: Chapter 26 The Threat of the Corrupted Monster!

A warm current of power, more pronounced than before, surged through his entire body. Lin Tian squinted his eyes in comfort: "Tsk tsk, is this the feeling of 'reaping without sowing'... ah no, it's 'devising strategies within a tent, while experience skyrockets from a thousand miles away'? Awesome! It's only been a little over an hour!"

He also keenly sensed something unusual: "Why are the 'monsters' in the wild so dense today? Leveling up is like riding a rocket. It seems the 'increased danger' mentioned by the system doesn't just mean more threats at night; the number and strength of wild monsters during the day have also increased."

The notification sounds chimed incessantly; although pleasant, they were truly a bit noisy.

Lin Tian carefully studied the system settings and finally found the mute option: "Hmm... turn off 'Unit Kill Notifications' and 'Unit Level-up Notifications', and only keep my own level-up notifications. Yeah, that's much quieter now."

After blocking the spam messages, Lin Tian continued to plan the territory layout (such as where to set up a training ground, where to open up a small vegetable patch, although there were no seeds yet), while distractedly browsing the [Trading Platform] and [Regional Chat Channel]. The latter always provided a lot of valuable and even alarming information.

Soon, one message caught his close attention. A Lord with the ID [Hiding in the Corner] described with lingering fear:

"Everyone, I had terrible luck today! I ran into something I've never seen before. Inspect shows it's called a 'Corrupted Beast'! That thing... it was simply hideous! Its whole body was covered in rotting flesh and pustules, with bones exposed in some places, emitting a foul stench. Its movements were stiff, but its strength was terrifying! My four normal-quality Spearmen stabbed it a dozen times, and it acted like nothing happened! In the end, I had to sacrifice one soldier just to cut off its head to kill it! The key is this damn thing doesn't seem to know pain; unless you smash it or cut off its head, it's very hard to kill completely! And it only drops Low-grade Spirit Crystals. A 3-star black iron one actually dropped 6! That's double compared to normal monsters of the same level!"

This message was like a stone thrown into a pond, stirring up a great deal of discussion. Many people indicated that they had also encountered this thing, with similar characteristics: disgusting, hard to kill, high resistance to normal attacks, only dropping Low-grade Spirit Crystals with double the drop rate.

Lin Tian rubbed his chin, his eyes becoming serious: "Corrupted Beast... only appearing sporadically today? It seems 'danger increasing day by day' doesn't just mean numerical increases, but also introduces new, more troublesome monster types. This is not good news."

He could already envision the scene where these pain-immune, tenacious, demonic things would appear in droves in the future. For Lords who rely on normal units and lack burst damage or special abilities, this was simply a nightmare.

Just as he was digesting this information, the panel suddenly emitted a distinct, crisp notification sound:

[Notification: Your unit killed a 5-star black iron Corrupted Beast, receiving a 'Reward': Low-grade Spirit Crystal × 10.]

"Reward?" Lin Tian keenly noticed the difference in wording. Previously, it was always "obtaining" Spirit Crystals; this time, it was a "Reward" of Spirit Crystals. Moreover, 10 of them! A 5-star black iron normal monster usually drops about 5, so this was indeed double. Even better, unlike normal monsters, there was no need to harvest them after killing; the rewards indicated by the panel were issued directly, which was much more convenient.

"Is the Heavenly Dao encouraging, or even 'bountying' the killing of these Corrupted Beasts?" He frowned, "And... they've appeared near my territory too. Sure enough, no one can escape this wave of 'pollution'."

Walking to the edge of the territory and looking out at the distant jungle, the ease on his face was gradually replaced by contemplation.

"At the same level and quality, it takes three to five normal units to deal with one Corrupted Beast... For many Lords, this is indeed a disastrous blow. It seems that improving the quality of individual units, acquiring area-of-effect or high burst damage abilities, and finding targeted weaknesses... have become more important than ever."

"My Fusion Evolution route seems perfectly suited to handle this challenge. The defense of the Mystic Rock Spirit Guard, the armor-piercing Thrust of the Heavy Armored Spearman, the precise sniping of the Moon Shadow Archer... combined, they should have more advantages than normal units." Thinking of this, he felt slightly relieved, but the sense of urgency also became more intense.

"I must become stronger faster, collect more special materials, and evolve more powerful units. The appearance of Corrupted Beasts is just the beginning of 'danger increasing'." Looking back at the territory that was beginning to take shape, and then looking in the direction where the warriors had set out, his eyes became firm again.

"Soldiers come to block, water comes to cover. You have your Corrupted wave, I have my Fusion army. Let's... wait and see."

The time hand quietly slid just past five in the afternoon. To the southwest of the territory, the hundred-man team led by Lin Yan was the first to appear at the edge of the protective shield.

The appearance of this team clearly told the story of a day of fierce fighting; almost everyone was stained with dark red blood, either fresh or congealed, and there were no shortage of damaged armor. Especially the Rock Armor Soldiers, their heavy stone armor was covered with dense claw marks, bite marks, and corrosion traces, as if they had been roughly polished by a grinding wheel.

There were even several Rock Armor Soldiers with shocking, huge gashes on their chests or arms, the edges of the broken rock jagged; although they were slowly self-healing, they still looked ferocious. Every soldier's face was filled with the fatigue of high-intensity combat, yet their eyes remained sharp, and their hands, clutching their weapons, did not relax in the slightest.

But their harvest was equally obvious; everyone was carrying more or less prey on their shoulders or in their hands, from smaller rodents and rabbits to sturdy wild boars and magic wolves, and one could even vaguely see some strange-shaped, ominous-smelling severed limbs, which were clearly parts of "Corrupted Beasts".

Seeing the team return, Lin Tian immediately went up to meet them, his gaze quickly sweeping over every tired but determined face, and said loudly: "You've worked hard! Brothers! Quick, come in first, put things down, and get a good rest!" His voice was filled with sincere concern, allowing the soldiers' tense nerves to relax slightly.

Lin Tian asked around; they were indeed severed limbs of Corrupted Beasts. The soldiers didn't know if they were useful, so they brought them back together. Looking at the rotting limbs, Lin Tian felt a wave of nausea; this thing was truly as other Lords said, really disgusting, and nothing could be harvested from it.

Lin Tian told Lin Yan and the others that in the future, these Corrupted Beasts should be killed directly, and there was no need to bring all the corpses back. Then he asked the soldiers to bring all the prey over and place it down.

The soldiers obeyed and placed the prey in the open space in the center of the territory, which soon formed a small mountain emitting a strong smell of blood. Lin Tian couldn't afford to let the warriors rest too much; he knew time was tight and he had to process these spoils of war as soon as possible, so he immediately threw himself into the "great cause of harvesting".

Squatting by the pile of prey, his palm brushed over the various animal corpses one after another, and the light of harvesting flickered continuously. This process was not easy, and was even a bit tedious and time-consuming.

"This harvesting system is too unintelligent!" Lin Tian complained in his heart while working, "Can't it be designed with 'regional batch harvesting' or 'one-click collection'? Must I touch them one by one... Even the donkeys on a production team wouldn't be worked this hard!" Although he muttered in his heart, his actions did not slow down in the slightest.

After more than ten minutes of uninterrupted busyness, the harvest of Lin Yan's team was all counted:

Various meats: 1000 standard units.

Furs: 190 units.

Low-grade Spirit Crystals: 910.

black iron Treasure Chest × 6.

"Not bad! A great start! To think a treasure chest dropped today; my drop rate is as stable as ever!" Lin Tian laughed at himself, but looking at the rich harvest, he still nodded with satisfaction.

At this time, there was about forty minutes left before dark. He quickly assigned tasks: "Lin Yan, take all the male soldiers under your command, take those empty wooden barrels made today, and go to the small river to fetch water immediately. Fetch as much as you can, and make sure to return before dark!"

"Yes!" Lin Yan accepted the order and immediately called his subordinates to take action.

"All female soldiers, please work hard, move these harvested meats and furs, and store them in those three warehouses, categorized!"

"Yes, sir!" The female soldiers also immediately took action, and the territory was a scene of busyness.

As for the Spirit Crystals, they were all put into the Lord's spatial backpack; after all, this thing didn't take up space.