140: Chapter 140 Winter City Completed

Rock Demon Alliance Channel.

Ormandin · Iron-skinned Goblin: Grande is dead!

Liejiao · Rhino Clan: ? For real?

Lieyan · Stone Spirit Clan: I've seen the announcement, it's true.

Ormandin · Iron-skinned Goblin: The light of the ruins is gone. Did anyone see which faction attacked it?

Sand Scorpion · Scorpion Clan: My scouts reported it earlier.

Sand Scorpion · Scorpion Clan: It was a Floating City of the Undead Race.

Liejiao · Rhino Clan: A Floating City??

Lieyan · Stone Spirit Clan: What Undead Race? Where would an Undead Race come from around here?

Sand Scorpion · Scorpion Clan: I don't know. It flew in from the west. It's huge.

Ormandin · Iron-skinned Goblin: Wait, the Undead Race?

Ormandin · Iron-skinned Goblin: Didn't Grande team up with you all to wipe out the Undead Race before?

Lieyan · Stone Spirit Clan: That was half a year ago; this one must be a newcomer.

Liejiao · Rhino Clan: A newcomer? A newly arrived Undead Race can take out Grande?

Liejiao · Rhino Clan: Grande had a force of one hundred thousand!

Sand Scorpion · Scorpion Clan: I only saw the Floating City; I didn't dare get close. But the ruins are now full of Undead, thick as ants.

The channel instantly erupted.

Lieyan · Stone Spirit Clan: Everyone, I suggest... running.

Lieyan · Stone Spirit Clan: If Grande couldn't hold out, we shouldn't delude ourselves.

Liejiao · Rhino Clan: Seconded.

Ormandin · Iron-skinned Goblin: Seconded.

Sand Scorpion · Scorpion Clan: Seconded.

Lieyan · Stone Spirit Clan: Head east, the further the better.

Suddenly, a message popped up.

Ormandin · Iron-skinned Goblin: But honestly, it's good that Grande died; I'm actually quite happy.

Ormandin · Iron-skinned Goblin: That dog-thing was always squeezing my iron mines.

Ormandin · Iron-skinned Goblin: Serves him right.

Liejiao · Rhino Clan: ...

Lieyan · Stone Spirit Clan: Remember to take your high spirits with you when you run.

Thirteen hours later.

The Floating City slowly descended.

Xu Qin walked out from the Combat Readiness Platform and arrived at the central plaza of the ruins.

He looked around and nodded with satisfaction.

At this moment, Tian Ming had already been waiting for a long time.

"Master."

"Well done."

Xu Qin patted Tian Ming's shoulder armor.

"I've moved all the resources from Grande's main city; there's a ton of stone and iron ore. We can use it in a bit!"

He strode toward the very center of the ruins.

Sure enough.

A three-meter-tall altar stood there.

At the top of the altar, an orange orb of light hovered, emitting a gentle glow.

Xu Qin approached, and the command panel displayed information.

[Orange Relic: Rock God Altar]

[Quality: Legendary (Orange)]

[Type: Sacrificial Relic (Cannot be moved)]

[Description: Cannot be moved to other locations. The relic is bound to the ruins and only takes effect within the ruins.]

[Effect: The lord can sacrifice resources to the altar. After each sacrifice, "Rock God's Blessing" is activated, granting all friendly units within the ruins a +35% buff to all attributes for 48 hours.]

[Sacrifice Cost: Wood x50,000, Stone x50,000, Iron Ore x30,000.]

[Current Status: Inactive (Last sacrifice time: No record).]

Xu Qin was stunned after reading it.

No record?

Never sacrificed once?

He looked back at the ruined buildings within the ruins...

"Oh~~ So that's how it is."

Xu Qin understood.

Grande had dumped all his resources into the defensive buildings of the ruins.

That's why he didn't feed the relic a single bit.

"He must have misjudged the situation."

"He thought there were no external threats, so he prioritized construction."

Actually, that's easy to understand.

Develop first, wait until resources are overflowing before sacrificing?

What kind of opponents could a lord who can occupy ruins and possess an army of one hundred thousand have?

"What a pity, what a pity..."

"Grande, you calculated everything,"

"but you didn't calculate that while you were invincible on the ground, an enemy would come from the sky."

Xu Qin shook his head.

"If you had just been willing to feed the relic once, the five thousand Rock Demon soldiers would have had a 35% buff to all attributes, and my combat losses today might not have been zero."

Of course, that's just a possibility; it wouldn't have changed the defeat.

Because under a pincer attack, as long as the main territory is destroyed, the ruins can be taken slowly.

Xu Qin took a step back and opened the ruins management interface.

[Bind to this ruin?]

Click [Confirm].

Ding!

[Ruins successfully bound!]

[Please name the ruins...]

Xu Qin didn't even think about it and directly typed three characters.

[Winter City]

Ding!

[Ruins renamed to: Winter City]

Xu Qin turned around and looked toward the Floating City.

"Winter Sovereign."

Hum!

An intensely cold aura surged out from the Floating City.

A massive ice-blue skeletal figure slowly walked down from the descent platform.

An ice coffin floated by its side; with every step it took, a layer of thin ice formed on the ground.

The Winter Sovereign walked up to Xu Qin and lowered its skull.

"Present."

Xu Qin opened the ruins management panel.

[Assign sub-city lord: Winter Sovereign]

Click [Bind].

Ding!

[City lord-level unit "Winter Sovereign" has been bound to "Winter City"!]

[Binding successful!]

The moment the binding was complete.

The ice coffin beside the Winter Sovereign vibrated violently.

Then, the ice coffin slowly drifted toward the center of the ruins and hovered beside the altar.

On the ground of the entire ruins, ice-blue crystals spread out bit by bit.

The central plaza of the ruins, which was originally full of gravel, turned into a plain of ice crystals within a few minutes.

"Beautiful!"

Xu Qin looked at the ice crystal ruins and nodded.

"Winter City should look like winter!"

He opened the building list; the first thing he built was a teleportation array.

[Build Teleportation Array · Winter City]

[Cost: Stone x8,000, Magic Crystal x200, soul energy x5,000]

[Construction time: Instant]

Ding!

[Teleportation Array construction complete!]

[Detected connectable nodes: Yongyuan City, Guling Holy City.]

[Establish a three-city teleportation network?]

Xu Qin clicked [Confirm].

Ding!

[Three-city teleportation network established!]

[Yongyuan City - Guling Holy City - Winter City]

[Teleportation cooldown: 60 minutes (shared cooldown across three cities).]

Xu Qin opened the resource panel for Yongyuan City.

[Wood: 312,000]

[Stone: 287,000]

[Refined Iron Ore: 264,000]

Good heavens!

So much!

Fifty thousand Troglodytes with 300% resource regeneration—the output is outrageously high.

Xu Qin didn't hesitate and teleported directly.

Ding!

[Teleported from Yongyuan City to Winter City: Wood x200,000, Stone x20,000, Iron Ore x200,000.]

Resources received.

Xu Qin handed the construction permissions to the Winter Sovereign.

"From now on, you can allocate the resources however you like."

"City defenses, barracks, watchtowers—build everything that needs to be built."

"The most important thing..."

Xu Qin looked at the Winter Sovereign's ice-blue soul fire.

"Yongyuan City is our resource base."

"With the three cities connected, if anyone attacks Yongyuan City, you will provide direct support via the teleportation array."

"Guard the home well."

The Winter Sovereign lowered its skull.

Its ice-blue soul fire flickered.

"Yes! I will never betray your trust."

Xu Qin immediately opened the altar panel.

"Let's feed it once first to see the effect."

Click [Sacrifice].

Ding!

[Sacrifice successful!]

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