136: Chapter 136 Is this sacred relic considered spoils of war?

[New Feature Unlocked: soul energy Infusion - Acceleration]

"Acceleration?"

The moment Xu Qin saw the prompt, he immediately opened the new feature panel.

[soul energy Infusion - Acceleration]

[Effect: The lord can inject soul energy into any building currently upgrading to shorten its upgrade waiting time.]

[Exchange Ratio: Every 10,000 soul energy = 1 hour of upgrade time reduced.]

[Restriction: The upper limit for a single infusion is 90% of the building's remaining upgrade time. A minimum of 10% upgrade time must be retained and cannot be skipped.]

Xu Qin switched to the treasure vault resource panel.

[soul energy: 14,872,600]

"Resources have broken ten million? This much?"

He began to recall how this number came about.

Two days of camping at the ruins to farm Void Rift Demons, with each wave ranging from 4,000 to 15,000, three waves a day, all settled with a 20x multiplier.

Plus the foundation accumulated from previous major battles against the 100,000-strong coalition, the Ancient Spirit Giant Python, and the Source Essence Giant Beast.

In other words, he could exchange for 1,487 hours of acceleration time.

"62 days?"

Xu Qin looked up and observed the current status of each zone.

The eight major zones were all currently at level 8.

Based on previous experience, upgrading from level 8 to 9 takes approximately 144 hours.

Eight zones, totaling 1,152 hours.

Subtracting the 10% that cannot be skipped, the actual upper limit for acceleration is 1,037 hours.

"More than enough!"

Xu Qin let out a long breath.

14.87 million is enough to accelerate the entire zone once; honestly, it's very cost-effective.

Xu Qin opened the building list and clicked to upgrade them one by one.

[Combat Readiness Platform: Level 8 → Upgrading (Level 9)]

[Cost: Wood × 28,000, Stone × 35,000, Iron Ore × 18,000, Magic Crystal × 1,200]

[descent platform: Level 8 → Upgrading (Level 9)]

[Cost: ...]

[Energy Zone: ...]

[Forging Area: ...]

[...]

After pressing the eight confirmation buttons, the numbers in the resource bar flickered rapidly.

The wood dropped straight down to 20,000.

The stone and iron ore hit rock bottom.

Only a fraction of the magic crystals remained.

Xu Qin remained calm and continued with the operations.

[Use soul energy Infusion - Acceleration on "Combat Readiness Platform"]

[soul energy Invested: 1,296,000]

[Upgrade Time Reduced: 129 hours 36 minutes]

[Use soul energy Infusion - Acceleration on "descent platform"]

[soul energy Invested: ...]

Xu Qin didn't even look and continued to inject soul energy.

Very quickly.

All eight zones were finished accelerating.

4.45 million soul energy remained.

Xu Qin looked at this number, stroked his chin, and said:

"Isn't this just pay-to-win acceleration?"

"Except it uses the enemies' lives."

Fourteen hours later.

Ding!

[Combat Readiness Platform upgrade complete: Level 8 → Level 9!]

[Deployment capacity increased to 35,000 units.]

Ding!

[descent platform upgrade complete: Level 8 → Level 9!]

[Single deployment force limit increased to 12,000 units.]

Ding!

The Energy Zone, Forging Area, and other zones completed one after another.

Xu Qin looked at the eight brand-new level 9 labels on the panel and the empty resource panel, nodding with satisfaction.

"Perfect."

"So this is what it feels like to clear your shopping cart."

Those 15 lords he had been reluctant to attack before could be harvested when he returned next time.

...

Over the next two days, Xu Qin was busy the whole time.

The most important thing currently was increasing the troops.

The main combat troops of the Combat Readiness Platform were primarily the three types of Bone Beasts and ranged archers, as well as Elite Cave Dwellers, Minotaur, and Sand Jackal, etc.

As for the eighty Bone Dragon, Xu Qin didn't count them in because they belonged to the nuclear weapon tier.

With only eighty of them, he would avoid using them under normal circumstances.

If even one died, Xu Qin would regret it for half a year.

Plus various auxiliary units, the total force was currently just over 60,000.

For the remaining 10,000 new slots, Xu Qin directly fused them all into self-destruct-style Bone Beasts.

They could tank, had high durability, and could self-destruct.

What great troops!

There was only one downside: they had to be repeatedly enhanced using Ore Spirit.

This was a tedious job.

And only he could do it; there was no way to let Tian Ming do it for him.

However, during this period, the Winter Sovereign's condition had fully recovered.

It had recovered from its serious injuries over several days, and its HP was back to full.

The reason it recovered so quickly was that Xu Qin noticed that while the Winter Sovereign was recovering, the sealing runes on the surface of its ice coffin were constantly fading.

By the fifth day, most of the runes had disappeared.

Xu Qin asked Tian Ming what was going on.

Tian Ming replied:

"Master, those runes were the shackles that bound its power."

"Now that it has been brought under your command, the shackles naturally dissipated."

"Does that mean it wasn't at full power when it was sealed before?"

"Yes."

"Is it at full power now?"

"It is in the process of recovering."

Xu Qin opened the Winter Sovereign's panel.

HP: 6.2 million.

This isn't even full power?

"...Fine, the stronger, the better."

Finally, on the evening of the third day.

The vultures sent out for reconnaissance had arrived at the periphery of the orange ruins.

Ding!

[Source: Vulture Outpost - Team No. 12]

[Location: Southwest, approximately 310 km from the Floating City]

[Reconnaissance Report: Arrived at target area. Discovered large-scale building complex.]

Xu Qin put down the animal hide blanket and opened the command panel.

He clicked on the reconnaissance footage.

Under the vulture's high-altitude perspective, a half-built giant ruin stood in the center of the wasteland.

Inside the ruins, one could clearly see city walls, arrow towers, barracks, and other buildings.

A rich orange glow radiated outwards.

It was brighter than the glow of the previous two ruins.

Xu Qin frowned slightly and continued to zoom in on the image.

"...Quite meticulous."

He praised while looking at the tight defensive fortifications.

Subsequently, he opened the reconnaissance report.

The number of troops inside the ruins was approximately 30,000 to 50,000.

Race unconfirmed.

But judging from the architectural style, there was a high probability it was some kind of alien race.

Xu Qin pulled the view to the center of the ruins again.

Sure enough.

An object emitting an orange glow was floating above the core area of the ruins.

Xu Qin tried to perform a view operation on the ruins via the command panel.

Beep!

[Operation Failed: This ruin has already been bound to a lord, ownership confirmed. Cannot view relic description.]

Xu Qin closed the prompt box and nodded slowly.

So that's how it is; as long as the ruins are occupied.

The relic's abilities will be hidden.

But...

Xu Qin did not feel regret for missing the opportunity.

Because the command panel thoughtfully provided the looting rules.

[Ruin Looting Rules:]

[When a ruin has already been bound to another lord, the attacking side cannot execute an occupation operation. However, if the attacking side successfully defeats the defending lord and destroys their territory core, the ruin binding will be automatically lifted. The relic will be included in the battle settlement as "Lord-level Loot".]

After reading this passage, Xu Qin raised an eyebrow.

"Included in the battle settlement?"

In other words...

Does the relic count as loot?

Then... can the relic be doubled?