328: Three hundred Hongmeng Dao soldiers

As the majestic golden light of 5 billion merit points poured into the grandmist dao stele like an inverted heavenly river, the entire star core region where Chaos Origin City was located fell into an unprecedented energy frenzy!

Hum—!

The grandmist dao stele erupted with a Chaos divine light even more brilliant and sacred than when it had resisted the Blood Abyss Saint King projection earlier! The stele body grew taller and expanded at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the divine patterns upon it became more complex and profound, as if woven from countless miniature cosmic nebulae.

The jade stele at the core, flowing with Chaos Qi, completely transformed into a "Grandmist Dao Origin Divine Crystal"—a crystal clear stone with scenes of the primordial Grandmist creation evolving endlessly within! A supreme dao rhyme, capable of governing the myriad dao, evolving the heavens, and suppressing the Universe, erupted and spread, instantly covering the entire Star City territory and even faintly radiating into the further Void Realm!

The space around the dao stele groaned under the unbearable load, with tiny cracks appearing and instantly being mended by the powerful force of the dao stele. The nine Chaos dao veins let out earth-shaking Dragon roars as more majestic and pure energy was forcibly extracted, injected into the dao stele, and became the nourishment for its transformation.

[grandmist dao stele upgrade successful! Rank: Level 9 Star City Core!]

[Territory Rank upgraded synchronously: Chaos Origin City has upgraded to a Level 9 Star City!]

[Territory range expanded: Covering the Chaos Star Core and the surrounding 5 million li of the Void Realm!]

[Territory characteristics enhanced: Dao Affinity: +2200%; Source of Dao Veins: Energy Recovery +2200%; Territory Efficiency +1100%; dao stele Suppressing the World: Hostile Suppression 25%; Friendly Buff 60%!]

[New territory characteristic added: star dome wall (Passive)! An invisible barrier composed of Chaos energy and Space Law is automatically generated on the periphery of the territory, possessing powerful physical and energy defense capabilities, capable of warning against and weakening external attacks! Can be actively activated as the "Star Dome Protection" shield!]

[Unlocked core building auxiliary functions: Star City-grade Void Port (can build/dock void battleships), Dao Deduction Room (greatly accelerates dao insight and deduction), Chaos Furnace (efficiently smelts all things, extracts Origin)! (Requires resource investment to build)]

A Level 9 Star City!

It was only one step away from the position of "star city lord" (Level 10 Star City), which symbolized a feudal lord! The territory range had expanded several times over, and the characteristics were comprehensively enhanced. In particular, the newly added "star dome wall" characteristic gave Chaos Origin City stronger early warning and passive defense capabilities, greatly improving the territory's survival guarantees.

This earth-shattering upgrade, unsurprisingly, once again triggered a heavenly dao announcement!

[heavenly dao announcement: Lord Lin Yuan (Territory: Chaos Origin City) has successfully elevated the territory Rank to a Level 9 Star City! An epoch-making feat!]

[Awarded merit points: 1 billion points!]

[Merit Leaderboard updated in real-time: Lin Yuan (merit points: 7.87 billion)]

Once the announcement was made, the entire 903 Divine Domain fell into a dead silence once again. If the previous Level 8 Star City was despair-inducing, then upgrading to a Level 9 Star City in such a short time completely crushed the hearts of all other lords who sought to catch up. The 8.8 billion merit points were like a divine sun hanging above the Nine Heavens, its light so blinding that one could not look directly at it.

However, Lin Yuan's actions did not stop for a single moment. The majestic energy fluctuations brought by the upgrade had not yet subsided, and the consumption of slaughter value had already begun!

"Consume 200 million slaughter value! Hongmeng Dao Soldier Camp, perform 'Space-Time dao patterns' engraving! Target: Origin Guards No. 11-50!"

Hum!

The rune furnace at the core of the Dao Soldier Camp erupted with blinding light again. This time, silver-gray and transparent runes representing the Time and Space Dao lit up, intertwining in a profound and mysterious way. Forty Origin Guards stepped into the furnace. The blood pool churned, and Chaos energy and slaughter Qi mixed with the true meaning of space-time, branding space-time runes into the core of their divine armor.

When they stepped out again, the aura around them had become more ethereal and uncertain. Their movements seemed to carry afterimages of time, and the trajectories of their Gui Xu Annihilation Blades became even more elusive, with attacks carrying faint space-time slowing or acceleration effects!

"Consume 800 million slaughter value! Initiate the second round of Hongmeng Dao Soldier recruitment—300 units! And simultaneously perform 'Space-Time dao patterns' engraving!"

The Dao Soldier Camp seemed to have been injected with a violent engine, and the blood-evil Qi soared into the sky! The blood pool roared, and new life fluctuations began to gestate! This time, the gestating fluctuations were even grander than the first hundred! After unlocking the permanent space-time dao patterns, the potential of the newly gestated Dao Soldiers seemed to have also improved!

[Hongmeng Dao Soldier (Space-Time Engraved First Generation) x300 recruiting... Affected by slaughter value input, territory efficiency, and soldier camp efficiency bonuses, estimated completion time: 10 days!]

"Consume 500 million slaughter value! myriad dao enlightenment platform, upgraded to 'Intermediate'!"

The enlightenment platform standing beside the dao stele shone brilliantly and expanded in volume, its natural dao patterns becoming clearer and deeper. Standing upon it, the clarity of insights into the Laws of heaven and earth jumped once again, as if one could touch the veins of the Dao Origin. This would be a huge boon for the cultivation of Lin Yuan himself and his subordinate Dao Soldiers.

"Consume 350 million slaughter value! Construct 'gui xu annihilation turret' (Saint-Grade) x10! Already deployed at key void nodes of the Star City!"

Ten ferocious turrets, cast entirely from dull chaos divine gold, with huge muzzles and flowing with heart-palpitating Gui Xu energy vortices, rose from the void on the periphery of the Star City like steel behemoths! The turret bases were deeply rooted in the space barrier, and the muzzles rotated automatically, locking onto all possible directions of attack on the periphery of the Star City. The aura of destruction they emitted was enough to make ordinary Hunyuan Realm powerhouses shrink back! This was the first active offensive steel defense line Lin Yuan had built for Chaos Origin City!

[slaughter value remaining: 0!]

In a short period, the 1.85 billion slaughter value just obtained from resisting the Dark Abyss invasion was completely consumed! In exchange, the Dao Soldier legion received initial strengthening and scale expansion, the enlightenment platform was upgraded, and ten Saint-Grade defensive turrets were completed!

Lin Yuan stood beneath the towering Level 9 Star City Core, the Grandmist Dao Origin Divine Crystal, feeling the reborn changes and even more powerful strength of the entire territory. The remaining 7.8 billion merit points in his hands were still a terrifying amount of wealth, but he knew deeply that to upgrade the Star City to Level 10, the required merit points would be an astronomical figure, and it must be supplemented by massive amounts of rare resources and the overall construction level of the territory. The urgent task was to digest the existing results and obtain more slaughter value and resources!

His gaze, like a cold sharp blade, pierced through the newly born "star dome wall" warning barrier and locked firmly onto the area marked in deep purple on the divine seal map—the Rotten Star Nest! The intense Dark Abyss aura remained there; it was the largest erosion node left behind after the Blood Abyss Saint King projection dissipated, and it was also an important stronghold for the Dark Abyss forces in this Star Domain!

Eradicating it would not only yield massive merit points and slaughter value, but also weaken the Dark Abyss forces, allow him to obtain the rare resources they might be guarding, and perhaps... even find the key to rapidly accumulating merit points or improving territory construction!

"Origin Guards!" Lin Yuan's voice resounded throughout the Star City, carrying a will of iron-blooded slaughter.

"Here!" One hundred Dao Soldiers roared in unison, their Battle Intent soaring to the heavens! After the brief insights from the myriad dao enlightenment platform and the baptism of previous bloody battles, their auras had become more condensed, and many were already approaching the threshold of the Myriad Dao Realm Middle Stage.

"gui xu annihilation turret, enter standby mode, lock onto the coordinates on the periphery of the Rotten Star Nest, and pave the way for our army!"

"Target—Rotten Star Nest! Plow through their dens, leave nothing behind!"

"Understood!!!"

The wings behind Lin Yuan flapped, turning into a Chaos stream of light, and he was the first to charge out of the star dome wall! The hundred Origin Guards, like a loyal torrent of destruction, followed closely behind! The cold killing intent tore through the void, pointing directly at that Star Domain exuding an ominous and corrupt aura!

Meanwhile, in the core of a Star Domain extremely far from Chaos Origin City, shrouded in withered death and twisted vitality.

The Withered Glory Saint stood on the core altar of his "Life and Death Bone City," built from huge skeletons and eerie vines. In the center of the altar floated a dark green crystal ball condensed from the wails of countless suffering Souls. Within the crystal ball, the heaven-shaking energy fluctuations erupting from the direction of Chaos Origin City were vaguely reflected—the divine light of the Level 9 Star City upgrade, and the stern, murderous scene of Lin Yuan leading his army on an expedition.

"Level 9 Star City... gui xu annihilation turret... Space-Time Dao Soldiers..." The Withered Glory Saint's withered fingers stroked the crystal ball, his deep eyes flashing with a mixture of greed and dread. "merit points... How on earth did he manage to accumulate them so efficiently? Can clearing one Saint-Grade exotic beast nest plus one defensive battle support such terrifying consumption?"

Behind him, a figure shrouded in a gray cloak, with an aura as cold and sinister as a viper, reported in a low voice: "Saint, there is news from the Shadow Chamber of Commerce. They used a broken 'Karma Trace' Sacred Artifact and paid a huge price to vaguely capture that after every large-scale slaughter by Lin Yuan, a special 'energy siphon' phenomenon that transcends conventional merit point acquisition erupts at the core of his territory... It seems... to be related to some kind of authority outside the rules of the Heavenly Dao."