Sky Cloud City

Sky Cloud City.

Lord Ran Tianyun.

The territory had been established for thirty-four years.

It was a prosperous territory with four cities, nearly a million permanent residents, and tens of thousands of daily active adventurers on average!

When adventuring hours ended, several Lord's Assistants entered the resplendent, palace-like Lord's Mansion to deliver their routine reports.

Today's daily report covered every aspect of the territory.

It included the progress of diplomatic negotiations with local forces, the latest movements of Dark Races forces, trade cooperation with other Dungeons, and the operations of the territory's four Secret Realms.

"Today, the territory received 31,294 adventurers, a decrease of 0.7% compared to the day before yesterday..."

Sky Cloud City's traffic had declined for three consecutive days.

Although the drop was small and within normal fluctuations, it still caught Lord Sky Cloud's attention. He immediately traced the data back to learn more.

"Black Stone Town has lost the most adventurers?"

"And several Black Stone Town Adventurers have terminated their contracts with Sky Cloud City..."

Such a minor fluctuation.

It was not enough to cause any real impact.

After all, Sky Cloud City was a massive operation.

But.

Something was off!

Black Stone Town was the first Adventurer Town opened by Sky Cloud City. It had extremely close ties with the local adventurer community and was known as the largest and most successfully operated Dungeon to survive Black Stone Town's fifty-year history.

Nowadays.

Although Black Stone Town was the smallest in scale.

It was Sky Cloud City's most influential and stable foothold.

Over the years, the town's adventurers had taken pride in becoming Sky Cloud City's Contract Adventurers. Every opening drew competition from dozens or even hundreds of people. Those who signed contracts were stable and highly loyal, with almost no turnover.

"My lord!"

"We found the reason!"

"A Dungeon called Miracle City has recently become extraordinarily popular in Black Stone Town. The decline in our territory's traffic may be directly related to this new Dungeon."

Another rising new city?

Although Black Stone Town was not large, quite a few new Dungeons appeared every year. While the vast majority could not operate for more than a few months, new Lords always emerged from time to time.

Perhaps they were gifted, perhaps skilled at publicity, perhaps their Dungeons had excellent locations and resources, or perhaps they became wildly popular for other reasons.

As a Veteran Lord.

With nearly thirty-five years of experience as a Lord.

Ran Tianyun had long since grown accustomed to such things.

Even if a new Dungeon became popular for a while, nine out of ten would still go out of business.

The waves washed away the sand.

The incapable were bound to be eliminated.

Fewer than one in a hundred territories endured!

Being a Lord was a high-risk profession.

Not just any stray cat or dog could do it.

Only Dungeons capable of creating truly high-quality Secret Realms had the right to survive!

Sky Cloud City's Secret Realms were universally acknowledged as the best in Black Stone Town, so Ran Tianyun did not take Miracle City too seriously.

Still, to understand the situation, he opened his Lord panel and glanced through the Black Stone Town Adventurer Forum. What he saw immediately stunned him.

Five of the top ten trending posts were related to Miracle City.

The top-ranked post was titled: "Shocking! The Number One Adventurer Returns! White Crane Hermit Announces His Contract with Miracle City!"

"Old White Crane... went to Miracle City too?!"

Ran Tianyun had known White Crane Hermit for many years.

Ever since retiring, that old man had caused him no shortage of trouble. He had cracked Sky Cloud City's newest Secret Realm designs several times, bringing Ran Tianyun considerable losses.

Of course, White Crane Hermit also thought highly of Sky Cloud City's development. His best students had mostly signed contracts with Sky Cloud City, stepping into a wider world as a result. Most of them were doing quite well now.

As for White Crane Hermit?

Ran Tianyun had invited him many times, only to be politely turned down. He had assumed the old man intended to rot away in Black Stone Town, yet he had suddenly returned and joined a Dungeon Ran Tianyun had never even heard of.

Miracle City.

There was definitely something wrong with it!

Ran Tianyun began scrolling through the posts.

The titles were more exaggerated than the last:

"Miracle City's masterpiece, 'Doomsday Frenzy,' will surely become the strongest Secret Realm in Black Stone Town's history!"

"Exclusive analysis of the Second Level design of the 'Doomsday Frenzy Secret Realm'—this is the most exhilarating Secret Realm I've ever seen, and the most perfect work of art I've ever seen!"

"Zombie-type monsters! Miracle City's one and only! Genius Lord Qi Ji's unique monster system!"

"The hype is insane! Miracle City Soul Essence prices have surged to three times the average price of Soul Essence of the same quality!"

"Massive news! Miracle City's queue may reach four or five thousand people tomorrow!"

"50,000 words of obsessive research! Wild speculation on the Raging Tide World's background!"

"With White Crane Dean personally endorsing it! Miracle City is destined to shake Sky Cloud City's kingly position!"

Ran Tianyun had seen plenty of new territories enjoy brief bursts of popularity, but he had never seen anything like this. Nearly every post on the Adventurer Forum was wildly praising Miracle City.

When had such a scene ever appeared before?

This was the first time in all these years!

Had Black Stone Town truly welcomed a genius?

If so, Sky Cloud City had to prepare early!

There was clearly competition between Lords and Lords, Dungeons and Dungeons. Most of the time, however, that competition did not unfold in a life-or-death manner.

Unless their territories directly bordered one another, the competition between human Lords was more like a contest between two companies, mainly centered on competing for adventurer resources.

Competing through Secret Realm creations was the most direct method.

After all, adventurers voted with their feet.

Of course, it was not impossible for Dungeon Lords to use underhanded methods to suppress newcomers in order to acquire more adventurer resources.

But in reality.

Since their territories did not directly border one another.

Human Lords generally could not pose direct threats to each other, so the competition was usually less bloody.

Ran Tianyun was an experienced Lord. He competed when it was time to compete and cooperated when it was time to cooperate. The most urgent matter was to determine what Miracle City was truly capable of.

Half an hour later.

The Leaders or representatives of the Four Great Adventurer Groups were summoned to the Lord's Mansion.

Ran Tianyun informed everyone present about Miracle City and the potential competitive threat it posed.

"What is there to pay attention to about a new Dungeon? Even if it siphons off traffic, how many people can it really take?"

"That's true!"

"At the end of the day, Black Stone Town is only a small place."

"Although Black Stone Town is small, it is still one of Sky Cloud City's foundations. We have to stabilize it no matter what."

"Other Shore Flower Leader, what do you think?"

"..."

The Leaders or representatives of the three Adventurer Groups all focused their gazes on a young female adventurer.

This adventurer, codenamed Other Shore Flower, looked to be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight. She was strikingly beautiful, with a slender waist and long legs, an exquisite beauty radiating a seductive charm.

The reason the three Leaders looked toward Other Shore Flower was that among Sky Cloud City's four Adventurer Group Leaders, only she came from Black Stone Town.

"I was just about to go settle the score with them!"

Other Shore Flower looked quite angry. "That useless idiot of mine was lured away by Miracle City!"

Ran Tianyun said, "Miracle City is not simple. Do not underestimate this Dungeon. Even White Crane Hermit is standing with them now."

"Exactly!"

"This White Crane Hermit..."

"If I remember correctly, he should be the number one adventurer from your Black Stone Town, right?"

Other Shore Flower was utterly disdainful. "What number one adventurer? That's ancient history. I've never thought I was inferior to him in the slightest. I only gave him some face because he's old!"

"No matter what, we cannot rashly suppress them or become enemies before we understand their true capabilities."

Lord Sky Cloud was very calm.

And sufficiently confident in himself.

He firmly believed that the Secret Realms created by Sky Cloud City would never lose to any territory, at least not in a place like Black Stone Town. Therefore, he did not fear competition at all.

Although Miracle City's rise might pose a threat, human Lords could still cooperate with one another or even bring one another under their command.

Ran Tianyun continued, "It is difficult to enter Miracle City right now. We might as well send a few people to queue up and find a way in to investigate."

Other Shore Flower said, "Fine, leave it to me. Within three days, I'll get everything figured out!"

Black Stone Town had many Dungeons.

Sky Cloud City was merely the largest among them.

With Miracle City making such a splash recently, Sky Cloud City naturally was not the only force interested in it.

What troubled every faction was.

Miracle City was simply too popular.

This made the chances of squeezing in through the queue extremely low.

They could only buzz around outside like headless flies, anxiously running in circles!