Great Raid, Part 1

White Jade City

Feng Huai leisurely wandered through the Dao Soldiers market inside the Heavenly Evolution Tower.

The space inside the tower was enlarged, as big as a small town. An entire long street was dedicated to selling various Dao Soldier seeds.

In the market, the stalls on both sides were densely packed with research institute students selling their self-made Dao Soldier seeds. Some were failed products, barely managing to recoup some costs by making use of waste.

Others were long-term suppliers in bulk, with prices cheaper than those sold by the Heavenly Evolution Tower officially.

This was also the rule of Azure Lake Mountain, encouraging cultivators to create more and better Dao Soldier seeds, to form a Dao Soldier market with a good trading atmosphere.

In two rows, like setting up street stalls, the cultivator students were either napping with their eyes closed, sitting cross-legged in cultivation, or carefully studying Jade Slips, seemingly not caring whether they sold anything or not.

"This market is quite quiet," Feng Huai said with a smile to the female guard cultivator behind him.

This female guard was actually also his friend, a master he met during an outing. Later, she was simply hired by his family as his personal bodyguard. She had been temporarily sent out to handle affairs, which was why she wasn't with him in Snowman City. He originally thought it was a foolproof mission, but he didn't expect such a big mess to occur.

"If Brother Feng likes it, why not imitate it and build one in the family, wouldn't that be good too?"

The female guard said with a smile.

"That won't work. Other markets are easy, but this one is rare..." Feng Huai shook his head, suddenly stopping in front of a circular stall on the roadside.

He walked over, approached, and squatted down.

"How much do you sell this Dao Soldier for?"

He picked up an egg-like yellow oval ball and asked.

The stall owner was an old man with one blind eye, holding a smoking pipe in his hand, puffing on it intermittently.

"Eight hundred."

He was talking about Contribution Points. His accent didn't sound like it was from the Azure Mountain Realm.

He must be another cultivator passing by to sell things.

Feng Huai had a rough idea in his mind.

He picked it up and carefully identified it.

"You want eight hundred Contribution Points for this, it's a bit expensive."

"Not expensive, the evolution conditions for my Understanding Heart Bird require one less item than others. It doesn't need to communicate with the master to cultivate feelings," the old man said with half-closed eyes.

"Oh?"

Feng Huai became interested.

The evolution of Dao Soldiers often wasn't just about killing Demon Spirits.

Especially among non-combat Dao Soldiers, those rated higher required extremely harsh conditions, such as various special environmental conditions, various special energies, specific times, compatibility requirements with the master, and the need to devour designated treasures, etc.

The role of the Understanding Heart Bird was speed, convenient for sending messages or small items, and it also had a certain ability to transmit messages, which was much lower in cost than teleportation arrays.

Moreover, its speed was only slightly slower than the Limit Realm of a fifth-rank Human Immortal. It also had extremely strong stealth abilities and could be used to scout enemy situations.

"Do you want it or not?" the old man asked casually.

"How long is the evolution time?"

Another person next to him leaned over to ask.

"The shortest type among the third tier, three years."

The old man said indifferently.

"Only three years!" This person immediately became interested.

"I'll take it!"

Feng Huai immediately transferred eight hundred Contribution Points to the old man.

With a ding, the Jade Talisman on the old man's body made a sound.

The transaction was completed.

Feng Huai picked up the Understanding Heart Bird and turned to leave, ignoring the shouts coming from behind him.

It wasn't that he didn't want to take another look, but the evolution time for this kind of third tier was generally five or ten years. Now that there was one that only took three years, of course he had to act quickly.

Moreover, there was no need to worry about quality issues. There was a research institute here that specialized in reviewing them. If you were a defective product or a scammer, then don't even think about leaving White Jade City.

"Oh, right, I also need to bring a Burning Furnace for Lin Xin." He recalled the situation of Lin Xin's War City as he walked.

"It's really strange, I don't know where this guy got the second-tier Steel Man and the Inscription Gnome. Could it be that he directly bought Dao Soldiers? Wouldn't that be a big loss?"

The Steel Man was the most cost-effective meat shield, and the Inscription Gnome was the best blacksmith and repairman for forging Magic Items.

These two types of Dao Soldiers were very difficult to evolve, belonging to the ultimate form, and the required conditions were also very harsh. He didn't expect Lin Xin to buy them from somewhere.

"I heard that City Lord Lin has a good relationship with Yuan Xi. Yuan Xi has a wide range of connections, perhaps he bought them through the Black Market introduced by him."

The female guard interjected.

"Maybe." Feng Huai was too lazy to think too much. In this day and age, anyone who could reach the fifth tier had their own secrets. If you asked too many questions, you might not even be able to be friends. It was better not to think too much.

******************

Soon, Lin Xin realized what it meant to ignore ranks.

The seed that the Flower Demon King threw into the ground grew with a bang. It didn't look like it was sprouting, but more like some behemoth was desperately arching out from under the frozen soil.

He quickly tapped his toes and gently retreated a hundred meters.

Buzz...

The ground vibrated, and white snow powder and frozen soil were raised.

The cracking ice layer was cracked and shattered, and a purple hemisphere arched out, only half of it exposed above the ground. Inside the translucent outer layer, there were many viscous liquids wriggling, and it seemed that there were densely packed insect eggs moving.

The Flower Demon King had been staying in place, and at this time, she was standing one step in front of the hemisphere.

When the hemisphere was completely grown, she suddenly shook her wings and pounced into the hemisphere. Her original translucent figure completely became almost non-existent, and she disappeared into the sphere.

Chirp!

A white light flashed, and the hemisphere shook silently before completely quieting down.

"Master, the Void Egg is ready at any time."

A crisp voice of a Flower Demon King came from inside the hemisphere.

Lin Xin narrowed his eyes, stepped forward, and carefully examined it.

The entire surface of this hemisphere was light purple, and one could only vaguely see inside, which was full of layers of insect eggs the size of fingernails.

"What is the function of this plant?"

He asked curiously.

The Flower Demon King replied from within.

"It can launch Void Eggs, causing creatures to become mentally deranged. After being killed, it will produce a mobile, second-order Floating Corpse-Eating Demon."

"What about its own rank?"

Lin Xin asked the most crucial point.

"I'm not sure. The information you provided during the sacrifice, Master, did not have specific evaluation criteria. It needs to be judged after a specific confrontation," the Void Egg replied.

"Under normal circumstances, Void Egg seeds germinate in three hundred years, mature in three hundred years, and only truly form combat power in a thousand years. However, I used plant control to forcibly ripen it using its own stored power. This state can last for a year, after which it will completely collapse."

"One year... is enough!"

Lin Xin was overjoyed. The haze that had been pressing on his heart seemed to have loosened a lot at this moment.

Just looking at the fluctuations of this power, it was probably at the second-order level or above. Lin Xin judged that even if it wasn't second-order, it wouldn't be much worse.

Thinking of the bad premonition he had before, Lin Xin quickly asked the other Flower Demon Kings to see if they could capture the seeds of the Void Egg.

Immediately, the Flower Demon Kings quickly captured the seeds of the Void Egg and held them in their hands for Lin Xin to check.

After checking them one by one, he directly assigned all the Flower Demon Kings to plant the Void Eggs inside the inner walls of the War City.

Soon, after more than ten minutes, purple hemispheres with a diameter of more than ten meters arched out of the ground one after another.

The strength of the War City has been unprecedentedly improved.

Lin Xin also tried to get the Flower Demon Kings to capture other seeds, but it seemed that all the seeds here were Void Eggs, and he couldn't find other categories, so he gave up.

He also tried to sacrifice and refine the Void Egg seeds, and then transmit attributes into them, but unfortunately, the shell of the Void Egg could not be penetrated by any power, and even sacrifice and refinement were impossible, let alone transmit attributes.

In the following days, he began to carefully inspect the strategic layout near the entire War City. Thirty Flower Demons spread out, surrounding the inner wall of the War City. As for the newly produced Little Flower Fairies, he let them constantly capture seeds in the void.

It would be best to capture Void Egg seeds, but also some other categories. He wanted to try to crack the isolation of the Void Egg's shell.

During this period, the Spirit Jade in the space equipment was about to run out. The appearance of the Void Egg was timely. If it was a little later, I was afraid that even the formation defense would not be able to be maintained.

The Steel Men were also evenly distributed to various Void Egg locations for defense and protection.

Everything was ready. If there were still problems, then he couldn't do anything about it.

******************

A few days later.

Lin Xin sat in the central Fortress, slowly drinking a cup of tea in his hand. A Void Egg was slowly floating and rotating in front of him, being probed and tested by strands of spiritual power.

Boom!

Suddenly, the entire ground shook violently.

The tea in his hand sloshed out, spilling all over the floor.

"What's going on!"

Lin Xin stood up, clutching the Void Egg as he walked outside.

With one step, he reached the doorway.

Just as he stood at the doorway and looked up.

The sky darkened again.

Countless densely packed Void Imps, like locusts, swarmed towards the War City, howling, waving their sharp claws, their bodies coated with a faint layer of black mist.

"As expected, they're here!" Lin Xin's heart sank.

He took a step back, and two Steel Men blocked him from both sides, the heavy Fortress gate slowly descending.

This Fortress enveloped the War City flag in the center, with the Burning Furnace located underground. Hexagonal protective bunkers were built around it, with stone walls above covered with formations, making them impossible to destroy.

The only way for the Void Imps to attack was from the ground.

Through the mental link, Lin Xin had already sensed that the Void Eggs on the periphery were already clashing with the Void Imps.

He narrowed his eyes, retreated to the Fortress throne, and sat down, waving his hand.

An ice mirror immediately appeared in front of him, displaying the scene of the battle outside.

The inside of the Void Egg suddenly bulged, like an inflating balloon bursting open.

Large clumps of plant parasitic eggs shot out like bullets, hitting the Void Imps with a whooshing sound.

The Void Imps that were hit first stiffened in mid-air, then suddenly turned against their companions and began to attack and intercept them frantically.

Every moment, dozens of Void Imps around the Void Egg were instantly turned to fight for it.

The Steel Men desperately guarded, smashing any stray Void Imps that slipped through the net.

For a while, the two sides were in a stalemate. (To be continued ~^~)