18: Chapter 18 Terrifying Territory Strength, Sixth Layer of the Void Land

After handing the new Frost Giant to Gunn to lead, Lin Xiao continued to replenish his troops.

A Level 2 territory can build a total of two barracks.

With the Frost Fortress already setting a high standard, Lin Xiao was certainly inclined towards a Perfect-grade barracks for his second one.

Unfortunately, Jin Ruxuan did not have any in stock; not even barracks with drawbacks like the Frost Fortress were available.

The same went for the Barracks Tokens.

The same was true for Perfect-grade Hero Tokens.

Perfect-grade Hero Tokens and Barracks Tokens weren't cabbages; they were extremely rare on the market. Even if someone had Heaven-Defying luck and opened one from a regional treasure chest, most would choose to use it themselves.

Situations like picking up Sun Yu as a bargain clearly wouldn't happen one after another.

Jin Ruxuan promised that he would find a way to obtain Perfect-grade Hero Tokens and Barracks Tokens, but he also frankly stated that whether he could get them during the Seven-Day Assessment would depend entirely on luck.

If there were no Perfect-grade ones, then there were only Rare-grade ones.

However, Lin Xiao no longer looked favorably upon the Rare-grade ones.

They were First-Order when summoned.

It required investing a massive amount of resources to upgrade them to Second-Order in a short time to catch up with the attributes of Perfect-grade heroes and troops. But that was only attributes; the gap in Cultivation Technique and skills meant they were still no match for the latter.

High investment, weak strength—this would drag down his momentum.

"Let's wait a bit longer."

Lin Xiao shook his head slightly and decided to wait.

The resources currently on hand were still insufficient; he couldn't support too many troops to Cultivate. Even if he recruited more troops, it would be useless if their strength couldn't be raised. It was better to wait until he collected more protection fees and had more resources on hand before investing.

Perhaps by then, there would be Perfect-grade Hero Tokens or Barracks Tokens.

One after another, targeted troop recruitment orders appeared in Lin Xiao's hands.

"Recruit Black Armor Soldiers."

"Recruit Dragon Cavalry."

"Recruit Dragon Cavalry."

...

One after another, Black Armor Soldierss or Dragon Cavalry were summoned.

Following Lin Xiao's series of operations, the number of these two types of troops both became 20.

He was still capable of supporting this number of troops to Cultivate.

Arriving near the Lords Mansion.

A Spirit Gathering Array stood there, with endless Spiritual Qi surging in from all directions, keeping the Spiritual Qi inside at a concentration far exceeding the outside.

Coupled with the effect of auxiliary cultivation items like Frost Brilliance Pills, the ten people inside were increasing their strength at an astonishing speed, improving every single moment.

The two heroes, Jiang Yao and Tu Lie, were both among them.

The other eight spots were rotated among the Black Armor Soldierss and Dragon Cavalry.

Human energy is limited and they would feel exhausted; it was impossible to keep Cultivating indefinitely. Therefore, once the optimal cultivation time passed, the Black Armor Soldierss and Dragon Cavalry inside would voluntarily come out and be replaced by others.

However, the two heroes did not participate in the rotation.

Heroes had higher growth potential, stronger power, and faster cultivation speeds; their strength improvement was far more important than the troops'.

Therefore, under Lin Xiao's orders, even when sleeping or resting, Jiang Yao and Tu Lie had to stay in the Spirit Gathering Array. After all, their Cultivation Techniques were of a high grade, so even while sleeping, the techniques could operate automatically.

Even though the efficiency was very low, it didn't matter.

In this race-against-time period, every bit of strength growth counted.

"One Spirit Gathering Array is still not enough," Lin Xiao thought to himself.

Now that he had summoned more troops, it was even harder to rotate them.

Fortunately, Lin Xiao had already considered this point and had spent a large amount of resources at Jin Ruxuan's place to purchase another low-level Spirit Gathering Array.

Selecting a spot on a nearby open space, Lin Xiao quickly set up the second Spirit Gathering Array.

Pieces of Spirit Stone were placed at key nodes to maintain the operation of the array.

As the two Spirit Gathering Arrays began to operate, all the Black Armor Soldierss and Dragon Cavalry were guaranteed the best cultivation effects, and even Lin Xiao managed to snag a spot.

It wasn't that he didn't care about his own strength, but his cultivation speed was far inferior to the heroes and troops.

Waiting until the Seven-Day Assessment ended, changing his Cultivation Technique, and improving his Aptitude would be soon enough to consider his own cultivation; for now, prioritizing the strength of his heroes and troops was definitely the right move.

"Fortunately, the Frost Giant cannot Cultivate."

Lin Xiao couldn't help but feel relieved.

At this moment, the fact that the Frost Giant could not use Spiritual Qi to Cultivate had actually become an advantage; otherwise, he really wouldn't be able to support them all.

Days passed, and time quickly reached the third day since arriving at the Chaos Source Sea.

The 6th Layer Void Land officially bordered his territory.

The Frost Giant that Lin Xiao had dispatched to watch the changes at the edge of the territory returned at top speed to report.

"Assemble the entire army."

Lin Xiao immediately assembled all his heroes and troops.

Looking at the army led by Jiang Yao and Tu Lie, each one exuding a powerful aura, a look of satisfaction inevitably appeared on his face.

He casually opened the attribute panel of one of the troops.

[Qi Army (Black Armor Soldiers)]

[Quality: Rare-grade]

[Order: Second-Order]

[Physique: 210]

[Spirit: 170]

[Cultivation Technique: Blood Battle Art (C-grade)]

[Skills: Iron Wall (C-grade), Sword Mastery (D-grade), Block (D-grade)]

Second-Order, Second-Order, Second-Order...

It wasn't just the Qi Army; all other troops and heroes had broken through to the Second-Order, and their strength had greatly increased.

As a hero, Jiang Yao's strength was even greater.

[Jiang Yao]

[Quality: Rare-grade]

[Order: Second-Order]

[Physique: 750]

[Spirit: 720]

[Cultivation Technique: Azure Sky Art (B-grade)]

[Skills: Outstanding Talent (B-grade), Dual Mastery of Spear and Arrow (B-grade), Prairie Fire Spear Technique (B-grade)]

In terms of attributes, she was in no way inferior to the Perfect-grade Frost Giant, and in terms of strength, she completely crushed the latter.

From attributes of barely a hundred when just summoned to over 700 in dual attributes now, such progress was nothing short of astonishing; even with the large investment of resources, it showcased the power of heroes.

Of course, the most exaggerated one was Tu Lie, the Perfect-grade hero.

[Tu Lie]

[Quality: Perfect-grade]

[Order: Second-Order]

[Physique: 2700]

[Spirit: 2000]

[Cultivation Technique: Reckless Elephant Art (A-grade)]

[Skills: Courageous Among the Army (A-grade), Man and Horse as One (A-grade), Mountain-Splitting and Rock-Cracking (A-grade), Blood Shadow Slash (A-grade)]

Although his Order was still at the Second-Order, Tu Lie's strength had undoubtedly crossed into the realm of the Third-Order; the terrifying aura of a peerless killing god made one shudder.

It wasn't just the inherent strength of the heroes and troops; Lin Xiao's logistical work hadn't lagged either.

Tu Lie and the Frost Giant came with a full set of Fine-grade equipment when recruited, not to mention that.

Jiang Yao and the other Rare-grade troops had now all been equipped with a full set of Fine-grade equipment, greatly increasing their strength.

Fine-grade equipment was already sufficient for battles between First and Second-Order creatures.

As for Rare-grade equipment, it was basically unseen on the market; even if someone was lucky enough to open one, they would only use it themselves.

The only Rare-grade equipment in Lin Xiao's hands was the wind feather bow he had brought in himself, which he handed over to Jiang Yao to use.

"With such strength, who else is there?"

Lin Xiao's confidence soared; he dared not claim to be the strongest, but looking at the ten million lords in the same batch, he was definitely, without controversy, in the first tier.