Chapter 124 – Mission Hall

Chapter 124 – Mission Hall

In the previous life, many people calculated that if one maintained quadruple cultivation speed, it was entirely possible to reach the initial Warrior rank within a year. However, for ordinary combatants, even by the end of the first year of the apocalypse, a significant portion still hadn’t accumulated 1000 spirit energy points to activate quadruple cultivation speed.

Some might argue that even with only ten or so spirit energy points per day, 100 days would be enough to gather 1000 points, right? Wouldn’t that allow quadruple speed cultivation?

But reality proved otherwise. Without sufficient spirit energy reserves, using double speed cultivation was far more advantageous than hoarding points for quadruple speed. Without double speed, it would take at least forty days to reach intermediate Apprentice rank. Yet even with just one hour of double speed daily, one could advance five to six days earlier – a crucial advantage.

Humanity was racing against the evolution of demonic beasts. Falling behind by even those five or six days could mean the difference between life and death.

For leaders like Yuan Jianze, accumulating spirit energy was relatively easier, but even he dared not exploit his people excessively. The previous life had proven this – some tried to have every combatant in their city contribute one point daily, dreaming of astronomical spirit energy reserves that would allow eight or even tenfold cultivation speeds.

But spirit energy was lifeblood to combatants. Taking even a tenth of their daily harvest from those who only gained ten points per day was akin to killing them. If the leader was powerful enough, it might be manageable. But even leaders started as initial Apprentices during their class change. Provoking public outrage would be disastrous.

Many leaders in the previous life had learned this lesson the hard way. Eventually, no leader dared to hoard spirit energy excessively.

Yuan Jianze, being relatively rational and having strong control over Xiangcheng City, had only accumulated 100,000 spirit energy points for eightfold cultivation. While 100,000 points seemed modest compared to the 500,000 Cheng Yang had extorted from him, Yuan’s daily consumption reached 280 points. Moreover, his officials also required spirit energy for their accelerated cultivation, creating a massive drain.

The combatants of Falling Phoenix Village were exceptionally fortunate to have priests among them. In this spirit energy-scarce era, priests provided an immense advantage through their healing abilities.

Currently, Falling Phoenix’s combatants weren’t significantly stronger than those from other cities, except for better equipment and statue bonuses. However, they could harvest ten times more than city combatants daily, largely thanks to their priests.

While city combatants needed nearly half an hour to recover after battle, Falling Phoenix’s warriors could be fully healed in just one or two minutes – a staggering difference.

With only 84 priests currently, Falling Phoenix could only assign one per squadron. Thus, monster hunting parties operated at squadron level, with squadrons staying close enough to form larger units when encountering big groups of demonic beasts.

For wilderness expansion, at least battalion-level forces were required, sometimes even two battalions working together.

Today, May 2nd, marked the twentieth day of the apocalypse.

After emerging from a dungeon that morning, Cheng Yang summoned the five battalion commanders for a meeting to arrange the day’s tasks, instructing them not to rush wilderness expansion.

“Lord, there’s something we need to pay attention to,” Li Wanshan suddenly said.

Cheng Yang asked, “What is it?”

Li Wanshan explained, “Yesterday I browsed the forums and noticed activity from several nearby cities. Yuan Jianze’s people have started contacting them. All these city-controlling forces are government or military-related, giving them a natural alliance advantage. If we don’t eliminate the Xiangcheng City threat, we might face trouble later.”

Cheng Yang smiled, “Don’t worry. Cities aren’t so easily controlled – they belong to the gods. Any attempt at complete control is doomed to fail. As for Yuan Jianze, we needn’t worry too much. While he’s indeed powerful and would have unlimited potential in any other city, his misfortune is being in Xiangcheng City while I’m here too. Without wilderness strongholds to conquer, relying solely on the city makes it hard to build a powerful force.”

Though Li Wanshan understood the strength of wilderness strongholds, he still couldn’t fully grasp Cheng Yang’s reasoning.

“Old Yu, how’s the secondary profession training among our combatants?” Cheng Yang turned to Yu Kai.

Yu Kai reported, “Not bad. Nearly all Falling Phoenix combatants have obtained raw material gathering tools for their secondary professions. Many go gathering daily, as it’s currently an important way to advance military ranks. Some have already reached or are approaching level 3 in gathering skills. As more reach this level, our raw material production will increase significantly.”

Cheng Yang nodded, “That’s good. In the coming period, more combatants will advance to intermediate Apprentice rank, giving us a qualitative leap in strength. But remember, this is the apocalypse. The world will only grow more dangerous. If our evolution falls behind the demonic beasts’, we’ll face extinction.”

Cheng Yang didn’t voice his deeper thoughts – that this early period was merely for humans to adapt to the apocalypse. The true brutality lay ahead. Anyone who thought they could rest easy with their current strength wouldn’t last long.

Yu Kai and the others nodded solemnly. Finally, Liu Hao asked, “Lord, when do you think we can attempt the nightmare difficulty of our two dungeons?”

Cheng Yang knew what Liu Hao was really after. Ever since learning from Yu Kai that a nearby dungeon might contain a special class change item related to him, Liu Hao had been obsessed. If not for insufficient strength, he would have charged in long ago.

Cheng Yang shook his head, “Not yet. We’re still too weak. Let’s wait until I reach initial Warrior rank.”

Liu Hao suddenly suggested, “Lord, what if we try having the territory guards enter the affiliated villages? Since they’re part of our territory, couldn’t that let us clear the dungeons immediately?”

Cheng Yang replied, “You’re overthinking it. First, we don’t even know if those dungeons are within our territory. Second, there’s a large stretch between Falling Phoenix and your village that’s not part of our territory. Do you think the guards can cross that?”

Liu Hao’s face fell – the idea was unworkable.

Cheng Yang had actually tried sending territory guards to affiliated strongholds before. But Chen Yun had explained that unless the central village and affiliated strongholds were connected, the guards could only protect the central village area.

After discussing more territory development matters, Cheng Yang dismissed the commanders. They were all busy people now, each managing hundreds of combatants with endless tasks to arrange.

After they left, Cheng Yang headed alone to the mission hall.

Though he’d been a mercenary for five or six days, Cheng Yang hadn’t completed a single mission – none had met his standards.

Previously, whether in wilderness strongholds or city mission halls, all tasks were related to gathering raw materials.

Cheng Yang remembered how frustrated everyone had been in the previous life during these first ten days after mission halls appeared. Especially carpenters and alchemists – within city limits, not only were there no herbs or wood, even wild grass and saplings were scarce. Thus, no one took mercenary missions during that period.

But after today, things would start to change.

Entering the mission hall, Cheng Yang found it much livelier than before. With it still being morning, many squadrons and troops were gathered to accept missions – still mostly raw material collection.

When they saw Cheng Yang, they greeted him respectfully, their deference genuine – at least for most.

They clearly understood that their survival and status as combatants were all thanks to Cheng Yang. Moreover, Cheng Yang had never demanded anything from them, instead continuously providing support. This moved them deeply.

If Cheng Yang knew their thoughts, he might laugh heartily! The reason he hadn’t demanded repayment was simply that they weren’t yet capable of repaying him. As Falling Phoenix’s lord, their contributions to the village were his greatest reward.

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