1356: guess

The Tianxia Empire's territory spans across endless Star Domains, with the straight-line distance between its two furthest points almost reaching two million light-years.

Such a vast territory is divided into five administrative Grand Regions.

These are the Central Grand Region, located in the Empire's heartland, as well as the Eastern Azure Dragon Grand Region, the Southern Vermilion Bird Grand Region, the Western White Tiger Grand Region, and the Northern Black Tortoise Grand Region.

Each Grand Region is further divided into seven Star Domains and hundreds, even thousands, of star systems.

And a star system, even the smallest of its kind, possesses at least two habitable Life Stars.

Outside these five administrative Grand Regions, the Tianxia Empire actually possesses many other territories, but these have not been incorporated into its direct jurisdiction; they merely pledge allegiance and pay taxes once every ten years.

The current Jin Yu Star is an example of this.

Compared to the Life Stars within the five administrative Grand Regions, places like Jin Yu Star cannot even be described as a desolate countryside; they are practically wilderness.

Any Life Star, or even just an ordinary resource Star, within a directly administered territory could utterly overwhelm Jin Yu Star.

Such a Jin Yu Star would only be eagerly explored by small Schools like the Seven Stars Sect; forces of any standing within the Empire wouldn't even bother to glance at it.

Therefore…

When Chen Feng said that selling the treasure would allow them to buy a Life Star in the main Star Domain of the Azure Dragon Grand Region and become local emperors, Zhang Bao and Left Thousand Peaks's breathing quickened.

This was an immense fortune that both of them found somewhat unimaginable.

“No, Old Chen, are you sure the items in the ruins are worth that much?”

Zhang Bao swallowed, ignoring the pain in his arm, and leaned over to ask.

Left Thousand Peaks, standing nearby, also looked over with a searching gaze.

“Of course!”

Chen Feng nodded, smiling as he said:

“You might not have fully grasped the true value of the item within the ruins.”

“What kind of place is this? Jin Yu Star!”

“A backward Life Star that has only just broken through planetary limitations and begun to explore space. Even if it has declined, going back ten thousand years, the civilization's strength at that time could explore the surrounding space, but at most, it only preliminarily touched upon the edge of the star system level.”

“A civilization of this level, let alone the Empire's Nine Departments or even famous major forces, just a slightly stronger medium-sized Mercenary Group from our Mercenary Association could wipe them out in minutes.”

“Under such circumstances, the fact that they could suppress the Nightmare Ghost Disaster means you can imagine how powerful the items they possessed were.”

“Old Zhang, you also mentioned earlier that the Nightmare Ghost Disaster that affected the entire Life Star was only resolved by deploying a Ten Realms mighty figure to erase the entire Life Star.”

When mentioning the Jin Yu Star civilization, Chen Feng's tone was somewhat dismissive, but Left Thousand Peaks and Zhang Bao fully agreed.

Although their strength was only at the Fourth Rank, as citizens of the immensely powerful Empire, they were psychologically able to look down upon these planetary-level civilizations, and even star system-level civilizations.

“Damn, this is an incredible fortune!”

After listening to Chen Feng's analysis, Zhang Bao exclaimed exaggeratedly, his whole face flushed with excitement.

To own a planet in the main Star Domain of the Azure Dragon Grand Region was something only those strong individuals who had survived the second great Tribulation of Heaven and Earth could hope for, equivalent to obtaining an admission ticket to become an Imperial noble or even a powerful family.

As long as they managed it carefully, their status would inevitably undergo a qualitative leap in the future.

Meanwhile, Left Thousand Peaks, the leader of the Fire Fox Mercenary Group, was also greatly agitated, but his emotional control was better than Zhang Bao's. He didn't show it on the surface, though his fingers trembled slightly.

“Then what should we do?”

Looking at Chen Feng, Left Thousand Peaks suppressed the excitement in his heart and asked.

As he spoke, his gaze subtly swept over the others present besides the three of them, and a hint of killing intent emerged in his eyes.

Although they had lowered their voices while speaking, it was not guaranteed that others hadn't overheard something.

An incredible fortune was right before them. To be safe, these guys around them…

“Don’t rush.”

At this moment, Chen Feng seemed to have seen through Left Thousand Peaks's thoughts and said calmly:

“Since we have already realized the true nature of this ruin—a Seal set up by a native force of Jin Yu Star ten thousand years ago—then the item must be at a crucial location of the Seal, or rather, the Seal was set up based on it.”

“According to my research, its storage location should be at the center of this ruin.”

“Currently, there are many Nightmare Ghosts in the ruin, and if we want to reach there, we must make good use of every bit of strength we have.”

At this point, Chen Feng's eyes narrowed slightly, and a cold smile appeared on his face.

Left Thousand Peaks, on the other hand, nodded upon hearing this.

Nightmare Ghosts were indeed the biggest threat to them.

Although the Nightmare Ghosts they currently encountered were only of a low sequence in the Empire's public threat Ranks, being isolated individuals with not severe pollution, they were not high-Rank strong individuals who could traverse the Star Domain. Even facing a single individual required a great deal of effort.

Especially…

No one knew if there would be higher-sequence Nightmare Ghosts in this ruin, according to the danger Rank.

Those more terrifying and bizarre creatures, even if not directly confronted, merely seeing them or even stepping within a certain range of their presence, would lead to irreversible corruption.

These surrounding team members could indeed be used as pathfinders.

Killing them now would indeed be a bit of a waste.

Moreover, the number of these people seemed somewhat insufficient. To be safer, perhaps gathering more cannon fodder would be more appropriate.

Left Thousand Peaks thought to himself.

“Commander Cui, I heard that after you received news of the treasure map, you sent many people here to the Black Forest.”

“I wonder if you have a way to gather them now?”

Seeing Left Thousand Peaks nod and remain silent, Chen Feng asked with a smile.

“That’s right, I did send a lot of forces here to the Black Forest. Two-thirds of the official members came, but…”

Left Thousand Peaks nodded, his tone a bit hesitant as he said:

“The situation in this ruin has exceeded our previous expectations. I cannot be sure how many people can still be gathered back now.”

“And most importantly, once the assembly signal is sent out, besides the Mercenary Group members, it will likely attract Nightmare Ghosts, which will cause a lot of trouble.”

“No, to us, this is not trouble at all, but rather quite advantageous.”

Chen Feng smiled indifferently, his eyes filled with a chilling coldness.

By attracting people and Nightmare Ghosts together, their path to the center of the ruin would be much safer.

“In that case, I will send the signal.”

Left Thousand Peaks thought for a moment, and a smile also appeared on his face.

…