174: Chapter 174: Confronting the Elysium Buff

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao's face darkened instantly after hearing the goblin merchant's words.

Lin Yuan had already begun to take the initiative and sweep across the Central Plains?

How much time had passed?

It hadn't even been two days since everyone entered the Rubiks Cube World.

Limited by the altar cooldown and initial resources, most people hadn't even fully summoned their second wave of troops.

Many were still exploring the defense mechanisms of their cities or taking a few dozen dependents to the wilderness to plunder resources.

How could Lin Yuan dare to split his forces and directly flatten five cities?

Was this a hidden mechanism of the "General" identity card, or a special ability of Lin Yuan's freakish dependents?

"Are you sure it's Lin Yuan?" Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao stared at the goblin merchant, her tone chilling.

The goblin merchant shrank his neck and nodded repeatedly.

"I don't know, but that army fights under the banner of 'Yuan Blood.' Now, the entire Central Plains is in chaos, and there are refugees fleeing everywhere."

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao's brows knit together.

She continued to press, "How many people are in that army? What is their troop composition? Did Lin Yuan himself take action?"

The goblin merchant made a bitter face and spread his hands.

"My Lord, I am just a small-time merchant; how would I dare to approach that kind of battlefield?"

"I heard that wherever that army passes, they even scrape away three feet of topsoil..."

"Don't talk about getting close; even a thousand miles away, one might not be safe."

A trace of irritation flashed in Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao's eyes.

"Get out."

The goblin merchant acted as if granted amnesty and scrambled out of the great hall.

Inside the great hall, Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao sat on the City Lord's throne, her expression flickering between light and shadow.

She realized she had severely underestimated Lin Yuan.

Under the rules where summoning altars were limited and one could only summon once a day.

How exactly did Lin Yuan manage to assemble tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of troops in just half a day?

Was this a hidden ability of the "General" identity card, or the freakish ability of the dependents in Lin Yuan's Wasteland Divine Domain?

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao couldn't figure it out.

But she was very clear about one thing.

She absolutely could not let Lin Yuan continue to snowball like this.

Once the Central Plains were integrated by Lin Yuan, his next step would definitely be to march south or head north.

At that point, no one would be able to stop him.

"Must speed up." Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao stood up and looked at the eight Mechanical Puppet gods standing below.

It was meaningless to dwell on the source of Lin Yuan's troops now.

The most urgent task was to infect more classmates as quickly as possible while Lin Yuan was still wreaking havoc in the Central Plains.

Gather intelligence on their locations and turn them into her Puppets before Lin Yuan could kill them.

"Pass on my order."

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao pushed up her black-rimmed glasses, a flash of determination in her eyes.

"Use all the wealth in the Golden Toad City treasury to buy resources and intelligence from surrounding cities and wandering merchants."

"You eight, go in pairs, take your mechanical dependents, and leave immediately."

"Find the locations of other gods and strike directly."

"Crippled them, then use my Mechanical Plague to assimilate them all."

The eight Mechanical Puppets knelt on one knee in unison, emitting a cold sound of metal rubbing against metal.

"As you command."

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao looked at the empty great hall and sneered coldly.

This Lord's hegemony was a competition of who was faster and whose methods were more ruthless.

Lin Yuan, we shall see.

...

Central Plains, Generals Mansion.

On the central plaza, the light from the five altars faded.

Lin Yuan completed the second summoning.

Limited by the altar's single summoning limit, the scale this time was the same as the first.

Ten thousand mutated Magic Blade Bats, ten thousand Liquid Metal Crabs, one hundred dual-sequence Tyrant Demons, ten thousand mutated Bone Fish.

And, one special unit.

Bug King.

Lin Yuan looked at the humanoid bug standing in the center of the altar, only two meters tall with six wings on its back, a flash of golden light in his eyes.

The king of the Heaven-Devouring Zerg.

The existence with the most wisdom and commanding power in the Wasteland Divine Domain.

As the Bug King descended, the atmosphere of the entire plaza changed.

The bulk of Lin Yuan's current forces were still the indigenous people recruited from the wilderness.

Human Race soldiers, refugees, fishermen, slaves, and Yao Beasts.

These creatures without any transcendent Foundation, under the blessing of the "General" identity rules.

Were bestowed the name "Yuan Blood" by Lin Yuan and thrown into the eight major military buildings in the city to change classes.

Blood Slaughter Infantry, Wind Thunder Cavalry, Behemoth Knights, Shadow Assassins, Warlocks, Scouts, Military Medics, Heavy Artillery Soldiers.

In just one day, the number of this indigenous army had swelled to two hundred thousand.

Added to the Wasteland dependents summoned twice, the forces in Lin Yuan's hands were massive, but also bloated.

Although the Tyrant Demon had unparalleled combat power, it was a brute; apart from leading charges and packing up resources, it didn't understand what it meant to arrange troops.

Now, the Bug King had arrived.

The Bug King knelt on one knee and performed a chest-touching salute to Lin Yuan.

Then, it stood up, its compound eyes sweeping across the entire field.

Hum!

A Mental Energy so massive it was suffocating erupted radially, with the Bug King as the center.

The Mental Energy turned into countless invisible threads, connecting to the minds of every Wasteland dependent and every Yuan Blood soldier.

The unique mental network of the Zerg took over the entire army at this moment.

The initially somewhat chaotic army of two hundred thousand instantly quieted down.

The breathing, heartbeat, and footsteps of all the soldiers reached an astonishing consistency at this moment.

The Bug King stood on the high platform, not saying a single word, merely issuing commands through the mental network.

The army moved.

It was no longer the chaotic steamrolling like before.

The Blood Slaughter Infantry raised their heavy shields, forming an impenetrable iron wall formation.

The Wind Thunder Cavalry and Behemoth Knights split into two wings, ready to intersperse and cut through at any time.

The Warlocks and Heavy Artillery Soldiers were protected in the center of the formation, staves and artillery aimed at the high sky.

The mutated Magic Blade Bats took to the sky, mixed with the eagles from the Scout Eagle Nest, forming a high-low combined three-dimensional reconnaissance network.

The Liquid Metal Crabs burrowed underground, coordinating with the Shadow Assassins to construct an invisible underground defense line.

The Calamity Fire Spirits and Tyrant Demons were dispersed by the Bug King, acting as vanguard squads, inserted at the very front of the infantry phalanx.

Wherever it pointed, it struck; it was as smooth as moving one's own arm.

Lin Yuan stood on the city wall, looking at this army of tigers and wolves that had instantly completed its transformation, his mouth curling upward.

"Go, take the entire Central Plains."

The Bug King bowed slightly, its figure flashed, and it merged into the army.

The two hundred thousand-strong army marched out of the city gates in a mighty procession, spreading out in all directions.

Lin Yuan turned to look at the material warehouse behind him.

Bursting at the seams.

Even the backyard of the City Lord's Mansion was piled high with Star-Patterned Steel and Yao Beast corpses.

Supporting war with war, the snowball had already started rolling.

The Central Plains were falling completely.

After the Bug King took over command, the speed of advancement was more than ten times faster.

The classmates who were gods on this land welcomed their darkest hour.

Whether they were powerful figures in the third tier possessing medium-sized cities.

Or rogue bandits in the fourth tier who could only fight guerrilla warfare in the wilderness.

As long as they were scanned by the Yuan Blood army's reconnaissance network, there was only one outcome.

Getting beaten.

And a brutal beating with no power to fight back.

In front of an earthen and stone city built in a valley.

Chen Yan looked at the seamless military formation outside the city, his scalp tingling.

He hadn't even finished summoning his dependents when the opponent's Warlock camp already rained down a round of meteor fire.

Following that, the Liquid Metal Crabs destroyed the Foundation of the city wall from underground, and the Tyrant Demons led the charge, smashing the city gate with one punch.

The battle lasted less than ten minutes.

Chen Yan was forcibly kicked out of the Rubiks Cube World.

In a dense jungle.

The fourth-tier assassin-style god, Lin Ying, was hiding with dozens of remnants.

He thought he was hiding very well.

As a result, the Magic Blade Bats in the sky directly emitted a round of ultrasonic positioning.

The Formless Source Insectss from underground broke through the soil, surrounding them like dumplings in a pot.

Lin Ying didn't even have time to shout for mercy before he was burned into white light by the karmic fire.

Steamrolling.

Infinite steamrolling.

Lin Yuan's army was like a bulldozer, ruthlessly crushing all resistance in the Central Plains.

At this moment, in the dim sky at the edge of the Central Plains.

An eight-meter-long Bone Dragon was weaving through the clouds.

The faint blue Soul fire in its eye sockets was flickering violently.

"Damn..."

The Bone Dragon lowered its huge head, looking at the tragedy unfolding on the land below, the entire dragon was stunned.

What kind of hellish place was this?

Its master, Bai Ye, sent it to the Central Plains to deliver a letter, saying there was a fierce man named Lin Yuan here and he wanted to form an Alliance with him.

The Bone Dragon was quite confident initially.

It was, after all, a Platinum Rank undead overlord.

But now, looking at the army below that covered the mountains and plains, disciplined, and with auras more freakish than the last.

It was trembling.

It saw a muscular giant with wings flatten a mountain top with one punch.

It saw a group of monsters emitting black fire turn the water of a river into iron blocks, smashing an entire city.

It even saw that those black birds in the sky were spatial bombs carrying plagues upon death.

"If I get close to that, I'll definitely be dismantled into a skeleton to make soup!"

The Bone Dragon swallowed non-existent saliva, flapped its bone wings, and wanted to turn around and run.

Even a Transcendent Rank would have to kneel here!

Just as it was about to slip away.

On a mountain top below, several anti-aircraft giant crossbows of the Heavy Artillery Soldiers had already locked onto it.

At the same time, hundreds of mutated Magic Blade Bats broke away from the formation, turning into black lightning, and instantly surrounded it.

The Bone Dragon froze in mid-air, not daring to move.

It very sensibly raised its two front claws, making a human-like gesture of surrender.

"Don't shoot! Friendly! I'm here to deliver a letter!"

The Bone Dragon shouted with Mental Energy.

Several Yuan Blood scouts riding Nether Mastiffs took to the sky and surrounded it.

They vigilantly scrutinized this undead creature, long spears pointed directly at the Bone Dragon's head.

"You bag of bones, what are you shouting about?" A scout captain frowned.

The indigenous army couldn't understand the undead language, nor could they receive the Bone Dragon's Mental Energy frequency band.

The Bone Dragon became anxious, gesturing wildly, pointing to a parchment letter tucked in the gaps of its ribs.

The scout captain saw that it had a good attitude and no intent to attack, so he couldn't make up his mind for a moment.

"Captain, this thing looks quite rare. Why don't we slaughter it and take the bones back to the military medic camp to make medicine?" A soldier suggested.

The Bone Dragon's Soul fire shrank in fear, and it shook its head repeatedly.

Fortunately, at this moment, a dual-sequence Tyrant Demon crawled out from underground.

The Tyrant Demon took one look at the Bone Dragon, directly stretched out its large hand, grabbed the Bone Dragon's neck, and picked it up like a chicken.

The Yuan Blood soldiers saw this and cleared a path.

The void wings on the Tyrant Demon's back unfolded, and it flew straight toward the Generals Mansion, carrying the Bone Dragon.

...

Generals Mansion, Rear Palace.

Lin Yuan sat cross-legged on the jade bed, his brows locked tight.

A cold Killing Intent radiated from his body, lowering the temperature of the entire room to freezing.

Outside the room, the faint sound of women's giggling and string and woodwind music could be heard.

Lin Yuan was very irritated now.

Very irritated.

The power of the "Pleasure" intelligence-lowering buff far exceeded his expectations.

These past few days, the Generals Mansion would automatically refresh dozens of stunning beauties every day.

Fox spirits, Succubi, Elves, Catgirls, Mermaids, Princesses, Witches...

Various races, various charms, everything one could imagine.

These women had no combat power; their only mission was to seduce Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan didn't take this seriously at all at first.

He couldn't even be bothered to look at them, directly ordering all these women to be driven to the backyard and strictly forbidding them from approaching the great hall.

But soon, he discovered something wrong.

Even if he didn't touch these women or even see them.

His sanity value was still continuing to drop at a slow but irreversible speed.

This decline was not making people idiots directly.

It was subtly magnifying the desires in his heart, weakening the defense lines of his will.

Lin Yuan discovered that his gaze began to linger unconsciously on the maids who passed by occasionally.

In his mind, some lascivious images would flash from time to time.

The operation of the Divine Power within his body even showed a trace of stagnation.

"The little head controlling the big head?"

Lin Yuan sneered.

This did not fit his character.

In his bones, he was a rational, even somewhat cold, person.

"This negative buff is truly not simple."

Lin Yuan closed his eyes, mobilizing the Divine Power in his Sea of Consciousness to suppress the churning Qi, blood, and desires within his body.

He turned his reason into a cold blade, cutting off unwanted thoughts over and over again.

Sweat slid down his forehead, dripping onto his dark red heavy armor.

This kind of confrontation consumed more energy than fighting with gods of the same rank.

But he had to suppress it.

Once his sanity value dropped below the critical point, he would become a humanoid beast that only knew how to reproduce.

"General."

A respectful voice of a Yuan Blood general came from outside the door.

"Lord Tyrant Demon brought back a Bone Dragon, saying it surrendered voluntarily. Please, General, decide."

Lin Yuan opened his eyes.

The bloodshot lines in his eyes faded, and he temporarily recovered his clarity.

"Bring it to the main hall."

He stood up and strode out of the room.

Passing through the hallway, several scantily clad fox-eared girls were holding fruit platters, approaching him coquettishly.

"General, you've worked hard, have some grapes..."

"No need, get aside."

Lin Yuan waved his hand casually and stepped past them toward the main hall.

Inside the main hall.

The Bone Dragon lay on the ground, two Tyrant Demons staring at it from left and right.

Seeing Lin Yuan walk in, the Bone Dragon dared not dally.

It hurriedly used its claw to dig out a crumpled piece of parchment from the gaps in its ribs and handed it to Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan took the parchment and unfolded it to look.

On it was Bai Ye's flamboyant, chuunibyou-filled handwriting.

"Brother Lin Yuan, seeing these words is like seeing me..."

Lin Yuan quickly scanned the contents of the letter.

Bai Ye wanted to form an Alliance.

He saw through Bai Ye's scheme at a glance; all that talk about brotherhood was nonsense.

However, Lin Yuan did not feel repulsed.

Although Bai Ye was slippery, he had never had any malice toward him and had provided quite a bit of intelligence at the beginning of Starry Sky University.

He could be counted as half a friend.

"An Alliance is acceptable."

Lin Yuan pointed his fingers like a sword, forced out a drop of fingertip blood, and wrote a large "Acceptable" on the back of the parchment.

Then he threw it forcefully.

"Go back and tell Bai Ye." Lin Yuan looked at the Bone Dragon on the ground and continued: "Tell him to pay more attention to the coordinates of other classmates; if there is a trend of Alliance, tell me."

The Bone Dragon nodded, hurriedly flew out of the main hall, and fled this place of trouble.

Lin Yuan withdrew his gaze and closed his eyes again.

The Divine Power continued to burn the Sea of Consciousness, resisting the erosion of the Pleasure rules.

He always felt that the ability of this negative buff was not just simply to disgust him.

Instructor Wen Muxue, or rather, the inside of this Rubiks Cube had other intentions.