A lord's role was mainly to command the overall situation, planning from within the tent and securing victory a thousand miles away.
Moreover, once a lord left his territory, he automatically lost the protection of the lord core.
At the same time, he lost the support of the immortality buff, making him very easy to kill.
That was why very few lords personally led their troops into battle.
Most of the time, doing so would only make things worse.
When dealing with an army commanded by a lord, victory could often be secured simply by killing the lord.
On the transcendent battlefield, this was a fatal weakness.
Thus, even in the later stages, after lords obtained classes and gained some miraculous powers,
they rarely took the initiative to enter the battlefield.
They seldom even left their main cities.
That was because, in the Ten Thousand Realms Battlefield, there were countless curses and assassinations targeting lords.
Once a lord was struck,
at best, he would become a slave lord.
At worst, he would die on the spot.
Once a lord died, his subordinates would lose the person they had sworn allegiance to and flee one after another.
That was why, when Fang Yuan stood atop the walls of the main city
and watched Lilith and Christian lead their troops away,
he felt a trace of an urge to personally lead an expedition.
But the thought was quickly suppressed.
"Although every man dreams of becoming a general,"
"I'm clearly more suited to being a king who stays behind and governs the realm."
Besides, as someone who had received a modern education and lived two lives, Fang Yuan had a clear understanding of himself.
He had never even killed a chicken. Asking him to lead troops onto the battlefield?
Wouldn't that be a case of one incompetent general exhausting an entire army?
After the development of productivity in modern society, many people understood one principle: let professionals handle professional matters.
When it came to leading troops and hacking people apart, Lilith and Christian were clearly more professional.
One of them had once been an Archmage capable of forbidden spells.
The other was one of the Holy Church's most powerful close-combat holy professionals.
Fang Yuan had sufficient confidence in them.
All he needed to do now was stay honestly inside the city and wait for news of victory to return.
Outside the main city,
after the figures of the two heroes leading their troops disappeared,
Fang Yuan secretly calculated.
"We've just built a Hunter's Lodge."
"That pushed our total prosperity to 2,700 points."
"But upgrading to a level-three main city requires 5,000 total prosperity, so I'm still 2,300 points short."
"In about an hour, I should be able to receive the reward for the Winter Spring Village rescue mission."
"If it's only a Red Quality Building Card, the prosperity provided by upgrading it twice still won't meet the requirements."
"I need to find at least one more Red Quality Building Card."
"The only channel left for obtaining this kind of Building Card is the Spatial Trading Market."
With a thought, Fang Yuan entered the trading market and began searching for Building Cards.
After selling the Demon Wolf Corpse last time, he had quickly familiarized himself with the market's trading rules.
The market's items appeared disorderly at first glance.
But as long as one made good use of the search function and set the desired item characteristics,
finding what one wanted was not difficult.
He entered a keyword.
"Red Building Card."
He clicked search, and countless product listings appeared.
Many of them were not Building Cards at all, but lords had deliberately set their search keywords to increase their products' exposure.
"Damn, they're all from Blue Star. They really understand the whole Pinduoduo e-commerce routine."
"Then I'll need a more unique keyword."
Fang Yuan pondered for a moment.
Higher-grade Building Cards often provided an especially large amount of prosperity.
He would try searching by prosperity first.
This time, he entered the option for buildings that provided at least 500 prosperity after upgrading.
These were at least Purple.
If there were no results, he would lower the requirement a little.
Fang Yuan immediately clicked search.
This time, he had changed from a vague search to a precise one.
Soon, nearly a hundred product listings appeared.
Although there were still quite a few, it was much better than the exaggerated number from before.
Fang Yuan began opening them one by one.
A moment later,
his brows furrowed slightly.
"Many don't meet the requirements, and some are listings for products that have already been sold."
"Only three actually qualify."
"The Mermaid Guard Building Card, the Tree Shepherd Barracks Building Card, and the Griffon Camp Building Card."
The merfolk guards were aquatic combat units and were different from fishmen.
Fishmen were units of the Beastmen Faction, while merfolk were human units.
Another characteristic was that merfolk were actually mermaids: high-intelligence creatures with magical damage, completely different from the lower-life-form fishmen.
Tree Shepherds looked somewhat similar to druids. They could drive great trees to transform into tree soldiers and fight, making them spellcasting units.
As for griffins, there was no need to explain them. They were aerial combat units.
However, all three of these Building Cards were Orange.
None of the sellers had listed a price.
They had only said one thing: discuss privately.
With the attitude of simply giving it a try, Fang Yuan privately messaged all three sellers.
The result was tragic.
The first two sellers' messages failed to send.
A prompt appeared.
"Ding! Your trading level is too low. The other party does not accept private messages from lords below trading level ten."
Only after seeing this message did Fang Yuan realize that there were levels here as well.
The only condition for raising one's level was the value of the traded items.
Going from level one to level two required two million gold coins.
He had only just reached level two himself.
Seeing this, Fang Yuan thought bitterly,
"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river. Don't bully a young man for being poor!"
"Just wait until I take off!"
"Even if you begged me to buy from you, I wouldn't!"
He then looked toward the final seller.
This time, the other party did not reject him. Instead, they replied directly,
"Equivalent Exchange. Barracks for barracks. Race doesn't matter, as long as it's Orange."
Fang Yuan scratched his head.
"Looks like I can't buy it after all."
"It's just strange. Why isn't anyone selling Purple or Red ones on the market?"
"Could they be too popular?"
"Do they get snatched up the moment they appear?"
Thinking about it, that really was possible.
Fang Yuan helplessly shook his head.
"Forget it. I'll wait for news from Lilith. Perhaps the Earthbound Spirit's side has yielded something."
"It'll just delay the city's development."
Just as he was about to leave,
the lord selling the griffins suddenly sent another message.
"Huh?"
"Looking at your transaction records, you previously sold an Orange Mutated Demon Wolf Corpse."
"How about exchanging Mutated Source Crystals and the Demon Wolf Corpse's strange item for it?"
"I'll give you the Griffon Camp, a Purple Building Card, and 500,000 gold coins in resources."
As he spoke, he sent over a Purple Building Card.
Fang Yuan took a close look.
Glimmering Magic Tower Building Card: After construction, the magic tower provides an enhancement aura that increases spellcasting units' mana recovery speed, spell power, and spell damage. It can also store three illumination lamps, dispel mist to scout the wilderness, and remove the invisibility effect of hidden units.
"Hiss, I need this thing right now!"
"It's practically a defensive weapon."
"It suits me perfectly!"
"I want it!"
"I really want this thing!"
Fang Yuan shouted inwardly.
But when he saw the conditions the other party had proposed,
he sighed.
"Unfortunately, the Mutated Source Crystals and strange item have already been used."
"And the first time I fought a BOSS, I triggered a nest mutation."
"If Lilith hadn't been powerful, I might have been finished."
"I don't dare try it again for now."
"Looks like this thing and I just aren't meant to be."
Fang Yuan replied to the message.
Still unwilling to give up, he asked another question.
"Can the magic tower be sold separately?"
Just as he thought the other party would refuse,
the reply unexpectedly filled him with delight.
"The magic tower? It can be done."
"But I'm not selling it either. I need you to do something for me."
"If you complete it, I'll give it to you."
Seeing the reply, Fang Yuan's heart tightened slightly.
"I'm afraid it won't be anything simple."
"The danger level is definitely not low. After all, this magic tower is a rare building."
"I'll ask what it is before deciding."
.
Fang Yuan sent over a message.
The other party replied readily.
"Clearance!"
"My territory's development has reached its limit."
"I'm preparing to take down an Orange Monster Territory."
"But I don't have enough troops."
"If you're willing to provide me with 1,000 units of Purple Quality or higher, each with strength no lower than the fifth rank, for my use,"
"I'll give you this building!"
"But I'll state this in advance: I can't guarantee your troops' safety."
"And after those troops die, you'll have to keep replenishing them for free until I complete the clearance."
In Fang Yuan's eyes, the other party's condition
was basically treating him as a giant barracks.
If the war could end in a short time, this exchange would be worthwhile.
But clearly, that was impossible.
Should I take it?
I could, but we can negotiate the conditions.
Fang Yuan thought for a moment before replying.
"The conditions are too harsh. If you keep fighting for the rest of your life, I'll be tied to your territory for the rest of mine."
"If you use my soldiers as cannon fodder, I won't be able to keep supplying you even if I go bankrupt."
"Unless we add a condition that the war cannot last more than thirty days."
"The number of resupply attempts cannot exceed fifteen."
"If that works, I'll agree to cooperate."
If these conditions were accepted, Fang Yuan would come out far ahead overall.
But the other party was no fool either.
After some haggling, they changed the maximum number of resupply attempts to twenty.
In the end, both sides reached a deal and signed the agreement.
When the agreement took effect, the other party suddenly sent another message.
"Huh, your name is Fang Yuan."
"Brother, you'd better be careful."
"Recently, someone posted a bounty for someone with the same name as you in the Mercenary Hall."
"I heard someone has already accepted it."
"Oh, right. The frontier-clearing war may begin in half a month, or perhaps a month. I'll notify you once I'm ready."
Fang Yuan stared at the message. He did not even bother looking at the Building Card he had just obtained.
"A bounty?"
"I just arrived at the Ten Thousand Realms Battlefield?"
"And I already have a mortal enemy?"
After thinking it over, Fang Yuan could only think of the Artisan Alliance, with whom he had previously clashed.
"Could it be them?"
"It should only be them."
After learning who his enemy was, Fang Yuan clenched his fists.
"Thirty years east of the river~"
"Just you wait!!!"
Before you continue