Chapter 174 - 120: Occupying the Glacier World (Part 2)
The temperature of the entire world rose, and all living things began to recover.
However, after more than twenty years of disaster, everything had changed. Although the world had returned to normal, all surviving plants and animals had been affected by ice elements, becoming Extraordinary ice-type flora and fauna.
After joining the Divine Wood Territory, the Haiqiu People obtained the Sun and Moon Breathing Technique and the Star Technique, setting them on the path to becoming Extraordinary. In this cold environment, most of them also chose the path of ice-based Extraordinary power.
And so, the Glacier World evolved from its original state as a Technology World into a nascent ice-type Extraordinary World.
And all of this was caused by nothing more than the remains of a fallen, high-level, epic-tier Frost Giant Dragon.
In the Glacier World, the Haiqiu People began their post-disaster reconstruction with the help of other citizens from the territory.
Squad Yuan completed their mission and returned to the Divine Wood Territory. After bidding each other farewell, they all went home.
...
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At the World Tree Crown, Lin Yu lay in a rocking chair, quietly absorbing Lin Kong’s memories. He was reliving Lin Kong’s adventures, which felt so real that he was able to enjoy the vicarious thrill of them several times over.
Beside him lay an ice-blue branch. It was as clear as a crystal of the same color, with a shimmering light swirling around it, making for a beautiful sight.
Some ice-blue buds grew on the branch, all of them still undeveloped.
This branch was the original World Vein Branch. After conquering the Glacier World, the World Vein Branch was no longer needed to serve as the intermediary connection between the Ice Crystal Tree and the World Tree.
Thus, it disconnected from the Ice Crystal Tree, and the part that had stretched into the void to connect with the Glacier World retracted back into the World Tree.
Now, it had lost the ability of a World Vein Branch to explore the void, so it could no longer be called a World Vein Branch. Instead, it should be called the Glacier Branch.
This was because it hadn’t lost its connection to the Glacier World; on the contrary, their bond had grown even stronger.
It now represented the Glacier World and the Ice Crystal Tree within it.
One could directly observe the development of the Glacier World and the Ice Crystal Tree simply by looking at the branch’s condition.
Each leaf on it represented one of the races of the Glacier World. Since the Glacier World was now rebuilding from scratch, all its races had to start over. That was why there were only small buds on the branch. As the races developed and grew stronger, whether in the Glacier World or other worlds, their representative leaves would gradually grow larger and more resplendent.
From now on, any achievements developed in the Glacier World would be absorbed by the World Tree, becoming part of the World Tree’s own accomplishments (including any of its previous achievements).
For example, the technology developed by the Haiqiu People in the Glacier World had now been directly absorbed by the World Tree. Basic sciences like fundamental, elementary, intermediate, and advanced chemistry, physics, mathematics, geology, and so on, no longer needed to be researched by the territory. The moment the Glacier World was annexed, they were all generated in the Technology Tree with their research instantly completed, launching the territory’s scientific achievements directly into an electrical age.
The territory now had a vast array of craftable items and buildings. The only things missing were the materials, skilled elite workers, and the means to adapt these technologies for the World Tree Territory.
However, the territory didn’t directly acquire the more advanced and cutting-edge technologies from the Glacier World. The Haiqiu People who understood the scientific principles behind them had all perished, leaving only technicians. Among these survivors, anyone who could manufacture items using that knowledge was considered top-tier talent.
Therefore, although technologies like anti-gravity technology, laser weapons, and heavy-firepower "metal storms" all appeared on the territory’s Technology Tree, they were all incomplete, with only partial research progress. Researchers would need to obtain the relevant books from the Glacier World to complete the R&D.
Furthermore, since the Glacier World was now a nascent ice-type Extraordinary World, the Glacier Branch, as its personification, generated a significant amount of Ice Energy daily. This energy didn’t just dissipate into the territory; instead, it was transferred to the Ice Element Core within the Five Elements Core embedded in the heart of the territory, recharging it.
Currently, it could recharge the epic-tier Ice Element Core by 100 points per day. In the future, this amount would increase automatically as the Glacier World continued to develop.
Although the World Vein Branch had become the Glacier Branch, it could still provide cross-world teleportation services to the territory’s citizens.
It allowed any member of the territory with the proper permissions to travel directly from any point within the territory to any point within the Glacier World.
Citizens in the Glacier World could, in turn, use the Ice Crystal Tree to return to any location in the World Tree Territory.
To regulate everyone’s behavior and prevent unnecessary trouble—like people getting stuck in walls from using the Glacier World as a transit hub to teleport anywhere within the territory—Lin Yu placed some restrictions on teleportation.
He set the entrance and exit point on the World Tree’s side at the territory’s Teleportation Array.
With the exception of certain personnel, anyone else wishing to travel to the Glacier World would need to use a Teleportation Array. Authorized individuals could then use the array to travel to and from the Glacier World.
All in all, sacrificing a World Vein Branch to conquer the Glacier World had brought great growth to the Divine Wood Territory.
Moreover, a new World Vein Branch was already growing next to the Glacier Branch. Once it matured, it too would enter the void to capture a new world for Lin Yu.
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「Time flew, and in the blink of an eye, it was the end of August.」
In the Lord’s Mansion on the World Tree, all the territory’s top leaders gathered to summarize the gains of the past two months and plan their next tasks.
"Master, during July and August, the exploration teams found a total of 234 exploration chests: 200 green, 30 blue, and 4 purple. They are now stored in Warehouse 8."
"We recruited a total of 20,000 new troops of various types. They are being sent to level up in the Skeleton Plain and the Goblin Forest in the order they were recruited."
"The current average level of the territory’s army is 26."
Phantom was the first to report, beginning with an update on the army’s situation.
"Right, I remember the graduation requirement for the Goblin Forest is level 15, isn’t it?" Lin Yu asked.
"Yes, Master."
"Then... how did the average get up to level 26? Haven’t all those new recruits dragged it down?"
"It’s like this, Master."
"Aside from personnel on patrol, most of our other soldiers have spent the last two months in the Eternal Battlefield. They’re fighting in the Basic Battlefield, where they’ve gained a lot of experience, so their levels have been rising quickly."
"Right, you mentioned that. But didn’t we agree to just test it out first? And I recall that in the Eternal Battlefield, the revival fees on the battlefield itself, outside of the boot camp, are extremely high."
"It is still a trial run. Currently, only one full squad fights in the Eternal Battlefield each day."
"It’s just that the Basic Battlefield is surprisingly easy. With healer Druids, our army takes virtually no losses, so now everyone is scrambling to get in."
"The military command center just submitted a request yesterday to dispatch our idle troops to the Eternal Battlefield on a larger scale. It would both raise our army’s level and keep our soldiers combat-ready."
Phantom chuckled. Lin Yu searched through the information in the Territory Core and found the request. Not needing to ask further, he simply gave an order: "We still need to maintain a standing garrison in the territory, just in case. You can divide the army into several legions and have them rotate between garrison duty and fighting in the Eternal Battlefield. Go back, discuss it, work out the details, and then amend the request and resubmit it."
"Yes, sir!"
"Anything else regarding the army?"
"Aside from those on daily rotation, most of the territory’s heroes are honing their skills in the Cosmic Arena. Their combat power has increased significantly, and they’ve also accumulated a lot of arena points. You should go exchange them for some items when you have time, Master."
"Also, after two months of growth, the defensive plants have produced approximately 32,198 plantfolk. Most are ordinary citizens, but 76 of them have passed the Transformation Tribulation to become ’Demons,’ ascending to the rank of hero."
"An outstanding individual has emerged from among these Plant Demons, and I believe she is worth reporting to you, Master."
"Oh? Do tell!" Lin Yu was quite interested to hear about another powerful individual emerging in his territory.
"Her name is Manqiluo. She was the first defensive plant to become one of the plantfolk..."