Chapter 63 – The Message

Chapter 63 – The Message

Yuan Jianze had a rough estimate of Xiangcheng City’s situation. He believed that at least one-third of the population had survived, meaning over 300,000 people were still alive. The number rescued so far was only a tiny fraction of the survivors. Relying solely on the military for rescue operations would severely delay the efforts.

As time passed, the refugees trapped in the ruins would find it increasingly difficult to survive. The most crucial factor now was racing against time.

In his previous life, Yuan Jianze had made the same decision, which eventually led to another faction occupying a different wilderness outpost. That faction successfully obtained the blueprint for constructing a Sanctuary, giving them the strength to rival Yuan Jianze’s forces.

Of course, in this life, with Cheng Yang’s unexpected intervention, how history would change remained uncertain.

…

After spending most of the night sweeping through the wilderness, Cheng Yang returned to Luofeng Village. His account now held over 2,400 points of spiritual energy.

Before starting his cultivation, Cheng Yang chose to upgrade the attributes of the territory’s statue, focusing entirely on attack enhancement. After the upgrades, only 1,500 points of spiritual energy remained in the territory’s reserves.

The next morning, Cheng Yang’s cultivation progress had increased by another 3.5%. At this rate, in just over twenty days, he would reach the peak of the Apprentice level. However, it was clear that Luofeng Village would reach Level 3 within that time. Whether to use the Divine Blessing to boost his level immediately or wait was a difficult decision.

The Level 3 Divine Blessing could affect all combatants below the Warrior level. If he waited until he reached the peak of the Apprentice level before using it, he could instantly become a low-level Warrior mage. This would be more advantageous than using the blessing to reach the peak of the Apprentice level and then cultivating further.

However, if he didn’t use the blessing now, his strength would remain at the high Apprentice level for the next twenty days. This would affect his plans and reduce his efficiency in gathering spiritual energy during that time.

After carefully weighing the pros and cons, Cheng Yang made his decision.

After leaving his residence, Cheng Yang headed straight into a dungeon. At the same time, Chen Yun and three other combatant guards also entered dungeons, though they chose different ones.

After a fierce battle, Cheng Yang emerged from the dungeon. Within minutes, Chen Yun and the others also came out.

After two consecutive dungeon runs, each of them had acquired most of their equipment. Since they had tackled the hard-level dungeons, all the gear was of black iron quality.

Cheng Yang then entered the Sanctuary and recruited the SS-grade talent from the priest and mage guard recruitment list. This action instantly halved his spiritual energy reserves, which had just surged to over 4,000 points.

He decided not to use the remaining spiritual energy for now, instead transferring it to Yu Kai’s team to continue their fourfold cultivation speed. By this point, Cheng Yang had lent out a total of 13,000 points of spiritual energy.

For the entire day, Cheng Yang led his original team in search and rescue operations within Xiangcheng City. They had completed about 80% of the mission, with only a dozen more locations left to search.

Although some combatants’ families had not been found during this rescue effort, Luofeng Village’s strength was insufficient to search the entire city. Whether those missing would survive would depend on their own luck.

In the afternoon, Cheng Yang and his team arrived at the last rescue point. Although they didn’t find the family member they were looking for, they received news that the person had been rescued by another group the previous evening.

The information came from another survivor who had been injured in the earthquake and couldn’t move quickly. By the time he reached the group, they had already left in a hurry.

Based on the survivor’s description of the rescue team, Cheng Yang’s expression turned grave.

“Lord, do you know who they are? Do you know where they are?” asked the anxious combatant worried about his family.

Cheng Yang thought for a moment and said, “Ma Tao, don’t worry. I don’t know who they are, but we’re not far from Xiangcheng City’s main area. In the current situation, the only groups capable of conducting rescue operations are either the military or other combatants. Based on the description, they couldn’t be from the military, so they must be combatants from the main city.”

Ma Tao’s face relaxed slightly. “Lord, should we head to the main city now?”

“Not yet,” Cheng Yang replied immediately. “Let’s return to the outpost first and make plans tomorrow morning. The main city is under military control, and although some civilian factions might have emerged, the military still holds absolute authority. Your family should be safe there for now.”

Ma Tao realized that heading to the main city immediately wasn’t practical, especially since they still had people to rescue on the way back to Luofeng Village.

Under Cheng Yang’s leadership, the group began their return journey, moving cautiously to avoid encounters with people from Xiangcheng City’s main area.

As usual, by the time Cheng Yang and his team returned to Luofeng Village, it was already dark. Cheng Yang arranged for the rescued survivors to be settled, then used the 500 units of wood gathered that day to construct the remaining three shops. The leftover wood was used to build Level 1 residences.

After finishing his tasks and having a quick dinner, Cheng Yang ventured alone into the forest.

He didn’t return to Luofeng Village until 2 a.m.

By then, the upgrades he had selected for the profession statues were complete. Cheng Yang immediately chose to upgrade the life enhancement attribute and began his nightly cultivation.

The five territory guards had been responsible for clearing the demonic beasts around Luofeng Village all day. Their unique skills gave them a significant advantage in this task. As soon as monsters spawned, they were quickly dealt with. The timely elimination of monsters slightly increased their spawn rate. As a result, the monsters around the territory alone provided about 1,600 points of spiritual energy that day. Combined with taxes and dungeon rewards, the total spiritual energy income for the day reached around 5,000 points.

However, paying the lumberjacks for their wood cost 1,000 points, and upgrading the statue attributes consumed another 2,500 points. This left Luofeng Village with only about 3,000 points of spiritual energy. Still, this was a decent amount, and in the coming days, the village’s spiritual energy reserves would only grow.

The next morning, after completing his cultivation, Cheng Yang entered the dungeon again, as was his daily routine.

After emerging from the dungeon, Cheng Yang assigned tasks to Yu Kai and his team.

The area within a five to six-kilometer radius around Luofeng Village was now under the control of the village’s combatants. Almost all large monster groups in this area had been eliminated. Any newly formed groups wouldn’t exceed thirty in number.

Under these circumstances, having each combatant team operate as a single unit was inefficient. Cheng Yang suggested they split into smaller squads to maximize their efficiency in killing demonic beasts.

For now, Luofeng Village’s nearly 1,000 combatants could only manage to clear this area daily, as it covered over a hundred square kilometers.

Each team was responsible for a specific direction, with further divisions left to their discretion. Those confident in their strength could push further outward.

However, in more distant areas, demonic beast groups of nearly a thousand had begun to appear. A single misstep could lead to total annihilation. Cheng Yang urged everyone to proceed with caution.

As for the lumber situation, the logging efforts needed to be intensified. According to Cheng Yang’s plan, all combatants in Luofeng Village needed to be housed in Level 2 residences, which required nearly 200 buildings. Upgrading from Level 1 to Level 2 residences would require close to 3,000 cubic meters of wood.

The first batch of lumberjacks was on the verge of leveling up their logging skills, which would double their efficiency. After five days, they had fully repaid their debts to Cheng Yang. To incentivize them further, Cheng Yang planned to increase the price of wood from 2 points to 3 points for those who had repaid their loans.

This adjustment was necessary because, at the current price, lumberjacks with Level 1 skills could only earn 20 points of spiritual energy per day, which was less efficient than hunting monsters. After the price increase, with Level 2 logging skills, they could earn 60 points daily. While this was still slightly less than what combatants earned, logging was safer, and many would likely prefer it.

However, this change would cost the territory nearly 2,000 points of spiritual energy daily. Once the next batch of lumberjacks leveled up, the expenses would increase further.

Fortunately, the Bloody Church dungeon in the territory was nearing an upgrade. Once completed, it would provide an additional 1,000 points of spiritual energy daily, which was a welcome development.

PS: Please recommend and bookmark! If you have Sanjiang votes, please cast them. Ah, tomorrow I’ll be leaving the new book rankings. I really wish I could stay a bit longer…