Rank Immunity!

"Binding trait: Crystal Palace!" Su Ye said slowly, choosing to bind the trait.

The moment Su Ye bound the trait.

Lilith, sitting by the lake, looked toward the Fallen Heaven Sanctuary. "Its potential has grown stronger?"

Then, smiling, Lilith watched the Original Sin Fallen Angels frolicking naked in the lake. These Fallen Angels had yet to notice—or rather, they lacked the strength to notice.

Su Ye looked at the Lord's Heart panel, where an additional trait had appeared.

Traits had to be bound. Every time the Lord's Heart rose by one level, there was only one opportunity to bind a trait. There were only two choices: give it up, or bind it.

He could choose not to bind one, but that would be equivalent to leveling up his Lord's Heart for nothing.

"There are still 2,900 Origin Crystals." Su Ye looked at his Origin Crystals. After hesitating for a moment, he gave up on continuing to level up.

It was not that Su Ye did not want to keep leveling up and gain more traits.

The main reason was that as a lord's level increased, the difficulty of the Void Trial also increased. It adjusted in real time. Lilith and the others were only at three stars of the Black Iron Rank.

They might be God Level troops, but the Lord World had a very special rule: rank suppression. There was a full rank's difference between Black Iron and Bronze.

However, rank suppression was suppression based on level. In terms of numbers, Black Iron Rank creatures could deal at most fifty percent damage to Bronze Rank creatures.

This Rank Immunity was the most terrifying part. Only after reaching Diamond would this sort of rank immunity gradually weaken or even disappear.

Every lord knew this. Back in school, the teachers had repeatedly emphasized not to raise the Lord's Heart during the early stages. They should only consider upgrading it after their troop levels had increased.

This was suppression based on level, a rule-like system unrelated to a troop type's rank. A troop type's rank represented its relative strength at the same level.

Because of Rank Immunity, Su Ye had no intention of taking risks now. After all, Lilith and the others were only three-star Black Iron. To put it plainly, they were invincible at the same level.

If he raised his level and unlocked Abyss-difficulty trials, Bronze Rank enemies might appear. If he somehow lost, that would be utterly disgraceful.

If God Level troops could still lose, that would truly be inhuman.

The main issue was that he had too few troops. Su Ye currently had only twenty units. If he had more, he could give it a try.

With so few troops and such low levels, there was no need to take further risks. If he developed steadily according to this plan, gaining one level per day would already put him ahead of other Novice Lords.

Origin Crystals, like Gold Coins, were hard currency—except they were more valuable than Gold Coins.

Do not think obtaining Origin Crystals was easy. According to information released by the Lord World, Origin Crystals could not be obtained from Normal-difficulty Void Trials.

To obtain Origin Crystals, one needed a chance at Nightmare difficulty. There was no chance below Nightmare difficulty, and even then, they could only be opened from treasure chests; they could not be acquired through Decomposition of corpses.

For other lords, being able to level up even once within the first ten days of the novice period was already quite good, let alone once a day.

Su Ye opened the Chat Channel and looked through the messages.

[Brothers, let me ask—has anyone passed a Void Trial yet?]

[Stop asking. There are definitely people who have passed it. Don't choose high difficulty; just pick Normal difficulty, grab some resources, and develop slowly.]

[If you're looking to die, choose high difficulty. You'll die faster that way.]

[Can I timidly ask, what difficulty should a tenth-rank troop type choose?]

[I suggest going all out and picking Abyss difficulty. Tenth-rank troops—you're a Chosen One! Brother, remember to take me with you once you take off.]

[Fuck you. Choose Abyss difficulty? Do you take me for an idiot?]

[You're not an idiot. You're just a pretentious little bitch, you dumb dog.]

...

Su Ye looked at the Chat Channel messages. Mm, they were very plain and unadorned. Greetings to each other's relatives were everywhere. Some were jealous, some tried to show off and got humiliated instead, while others had already begun blaming the heavens and everyone else.

That was normal. If Su Ye had not had a good talent and a good Novice Barracks, he would have complained a few times too. People were all hypocrites, and Su Ye was no exception.

[Otherworld Traveler: Buying Dark Seeds. Private message me if you have any. The price will definitely satisfy you.]

[Otherworld Traveler: Buying Dark Seeds. Private message me if you have any. The price will definitely satisfy you.]

[Otherworld Traveler: Buying Dark Seeds. Private message me if you have any. The price will definitely satisfy you.]

...

Otherworld Traveler was Su Ye's alias in the Chat Channel. Who used their real name when out in the world? Would you? Anyway, he would not.

A Dark Seed was a Rare Treasure-grade item. Treasure grades were the same as Wonder grades.

They could be found in rating treasure chests from Void Trials. There were at least several billion Novice Lords in the same batch.

There should be Novice Lords who had obtained Dark Seeds, and there were also those who had obtained Barracks. The question was whether they would be willing to trade.

Su Ye had no other choice but to try this clumsy method and see whether he could find someone willing to trade.

Although the Trading House was sealed, Novice Lords could privately message and trade with one another. Such private trades were limited to Novice Lords.

This could be considered the Will of the Eternal World leaving some Novice Lords a way to survive.

Some Novice Lords had poor troop types but plentiful territory resources, yet had no way to trade. Others obtained resources they did not need and likewise needed to exchange them. That was the purpose of private trades.

"Too bad the Merchant Lords haven't appeared yet. But it should be soon. At the latest, the first batch of Merchant Lords will appear on the third day of the novice period. Then things will be much easier." Su Ye could not help thinking.

Merchant Lords appeared among every generation of Novice Lords. Such individuals generally possessed talents geared toward commerce or trade, though they could also be members of Great Merchant Guilds.

Their existence was beneficial to both powerful lords and ordinary lords.

Powerful lords only needed to find them to purchase resources, and could even have them reserve things they needed for them, provided they had enough money.

Ordinary lords could also trade their resources to Merchant Lords and have the Merchant Lords sell them.

It was a good thing for all lords. Of course, some called them unscrupulous merchants, but that depended on one's perspective. For Su Ye, the benefit of finding Merchant Lords was efficiency. He would not need to waste time himself.

As long as he had resources, he only needed to ask a Merchant Lord to keep an eye out for whatever he needed. Spending a bit more resources was no problem at all for Su Ye.

Likewise, for powerful lords, anything that could be settled with money was never a problem. What they wanted was efficiency, not wasting vast amounts of time searching.