Inside the palace, Palace Master Lihua was an exotic woman with a graceful figure. Her appearance was crystalline and dreamlike, as pure as snow. Beneath her platinum-colored scales were delicate, beautiful features and a pair of cyan vertical ears. She had three eyes: a pair of horizontal eyes filled with endless allure, and, on her forehead, a vertical eye radiating the majesty of a superior. That eye was tightly shut, but its golden patterns proclaimed her nobility.
However, this alluring woman was currently surrounded by murderous intent. The surrounding space seemed to have grown much colder because of it.
"Human Galaxy!" This name had been deeply etched into the depths of her heart.
Because of this man, her disciple had died, along with billions of her clansmen.
Her most beloved disciple, Evil Eye, had also transcended reincarnation not long after she did. With both master and disciple having transcended reincarnation, they had become a celebrated story in that Universe Ocean.
She had transcended reincarnation countless ages ago. On the Origin Continent, she had even obtained a powerful Saint-level inheritance. Later, she successfully seized the Primal Universe, and her strength began to advance by leaps and bounds. Under the identity of White Lotus City's City Lord in You Mountain, she broke through to the Saint Realm, was absorbed into the upper echelons of the You Mountain Empire, and became one of the Saint Realm experts granted a title.
After reaching the Saint Realm, she had also tried every possible method to find her disciple Evil Eye and bring him to the You Mountain Empire. In the end, he had also become a Domain Lord.
As the king of the Demon Eye Clan, her disciple was exceptionally gifted. He had obtained an extremely terrifying Innate Secret Technique and possessed Saint-level willpower. Reaching the Saint level was only a matter of time.
She, Mu Lihua, had seized the Will of the Original Universe. There was even a certain probability of becoming a God King, so her ambitions were naturally enormous. She hoped that the Demon Eye Clan could establish a God King kingdom of its own and even become one of the peak races on the Origin Continent.
Yet her most outstanding disciple, her greatest hope, had still fallen.
Along with his death, countless Demon Eye Clan members in the Sacred Land Universe had also fallen.
"Human Galaxy, no matter what, you must die! I swear upon the Supreme Rule that I will surely tear you to pieces in this life and avenge my clan!" The third vertical eye on Palace Master Lihua's forehead flickered faintly with wisps of demonic flames. Endless killing intent spilled outward, and the temperature inside the palace instantly dropped to freezing point. The wine in her cup froze solid as well.
But Palace Master Lihua understood that her true body was not in Lihua Palace. Instead, she had been dispatched to guard a perilous place and could only return after her term was complete.
"Nearly one Era of Reincarnation remains. I can't endure that long. Galaxy must die—now!" Palace Master Lihua could no longer suppress the hatred in her heart and roared loudly.
"That's right. Mad Demon should still be in the Imperial Capital. Spend some treasures to have him act, capture Galaxy, and torture him viciously until he wishes he were dead. Then kill him. Mad Demon doesn't belong to You Mountain, so he has far fewer restrictions. By then, even Nine Regions Palace won't be able to hold me accountable." Palace Master Lihua's eyes flashed.
She immediately contacted Mad Demon through the Communication Token.
Mad Demon was not a Saint Realm expert from the You Mountain Empire, so he had no scruples in his actions. Although he was considerably weaker than her, he was still a fairly renowned Saint Realm expert. His strength was at the Fourth Source level, so dealing with an Eternal True God would be effortless.
A titled Saint Realm expert was asking him for help, and Mad Demon would give her face. There was a ten-out-of-ten chance of getting him to act.
Azure City, the City Lord's Residence.
The two stewards were quite sensible. They arranged for the servants in the residence to hold a welcoming ceremony for the new City Lord. As for the inauguration ceremony across the entire domain, it was scheduled to be held more than a year later.
Luo Feng had originally not wanted to make things so complicated, but after hearing the two stewards explain the benefits of accepting gifts, he stopped refusing. He even took the initiative to have the two stewards hint at his needs when they invited people, deliberately creating some rumors so that others would understand what he wanted and make it easier to collect enough resources.
Morosa needed considerable resources to evolve and break through to the Saint Realm. Nurturing warriors required even more resources. With such an excellent opportunity to receive gifts, he naturally had to make good use of it.
The two stewards handled matters smoothly enough. Presumably, the previous Domain Lords had done plenty of things like this.
The City Lord's Residence of Azure City.
This was a Palace-type Supreme Treasure transformed into the shape of a living palace. It was loyal only to the holder of the Domain Lord Token. Since Luo Feng controlled the Domain Lord Token, he could easily control this living palace as well. Following his usual style, Luo Feng had the entire City Lord's Residence remodeled and transformed. Soon, a beautiful, grand estate in the Huaxia garden style took shape.
At the heart of the garden was the place where Luo Feng usually cultivated and lived. Without his order, no one could intrude.
Looking at the exquisite garden estate, Luo Feng nodded in satisfaction.
After returning to his personal residence, Luo Feng finally had time to calmly sort through the spoils left behind by Evil Eye...
The Domain Lord Token was the most important gain.
The moment he refined the Domain Lord Token, Luo Feng received all its information.
The Domain Lord Token itself contained a Realm Stone space with functions similar to those of the Virtual Universe. At the same time, it was also a map containing the coordinate map of the entire You Mountain Empire, with every coordinate detailed beyond compare.
More importantly, the Domain Lord Token was a symbol of the status of a Nine Regions Domain Lord. For every newly appointed Domain Lord, apart from granting the prescribed rights and responsibilities, it also represented a tremendous opportunity.
Every newly appointed Domain Lord had one opportunity to comprehend the Primal Chaos Stele, with a time limit of ten thousand eras.
It was said that the Primal Chaos Stele had been created by You Mountain God King, the founding emperor of the You Mountain Empire. It contained the mysteries of fusing the ten basic laws into the Chaos Law, as well as ten Origin Mysteries. If anyone could comprehend all the mysteries within it, they would be fully capable of entering the God King Realm.
However, the Primal Chaos Stele was too profound and complex. Since its creation, fewer than a handful of Eternal True Gods had comprehended an Origin Mystery from it within ten thousand eras.
Apart from such an opportunity, as a Domain Lord of a region, one was already an internal member of the You Mountain Empire. Naturally, one also had to complete certain tasks every Era of Reincarnation.
Domain Lords themselves were also subject to a strict examination system.
Every Era of Reincarnation—that was, every three hundred and sixty trillion eras—they had to complete one externally assigned examination mission. The mission could not be chosen freely and would be arranged uniformly by the You Mountain Empire. Its deadline was one Era of Reincarnation. Once issued, the mission could only succeed and could not fail. If the mission failed, the Domain Lord qualification would be revoked, and someone from the empire would reclaim the Domain Lord Token.
Apart from missions arranged by the empire, Domain Lords could also independently accept certain internal missions. Completing them would earn corresponding contribution-value rewards.
In the You Mountain Empire, contribution value was worth more than even Source Crystals or Soul Crystals.
One point of contribution value was roughly equivalent to ten Qiankun Units of Source Crystals. Its purchasing power could be imagined. In the You Mountain Empire, the Thousand Treasures Pavilion was controlled by the empire's internal forces, and contribution value could still be used for settlement at its auctions. Moreover, some treasures within the empire were not sold to outsiders, but could be exchanged for internally using contribution value.
After learning all this, Luo Feng understood. "The examination missions are meant to maintain one's Domain Lord status. The other missions carry risks, but they can also earn contribution value."
This was somewhat similar to the mechanisms within humanity, except that the examination missions were never simple. They even carried a certain risk of death. In the past one hundred Eras of Reincarnation, more than one hundred Domain Lords had fallen because of missions, giving them a death rate of over ten percent.
The risks of the examination missions were also briefly recorded.
"That's true. Missions without a death rate wouldn't be enough to stimulate one's potential or meet the requirements for nurturing experts." Luo Feng thought to himself.
"Let's look at the other missions first." With a thought from Luo Feng, a mission list appeared before him.
The missions were mainly divided into three categories and four levels.
The three categories were "rotational guarding," obtaining certain treasures, and assassination.
The four levels were ordinary, dangerous, desperate, and hellish death.
Among the three categories, guarding was the most ordinary. It generally involved guarding some perilous place and merely required the guard to be responsible for transmitting messages. Missions to obtain treasures included dangerous-level and desperate-level missions, depending on the difficulty. Assassination missions were basically dangerous level or higher, and even hellish-death-level missions fell under the assassination category.
There were only three hellish-death-level missions.
The first was the assassination of Tanaer Buwuchuan Fuyi, a super genius of Fuyi Kingdom. Fuyi Kingdom was an enemy force of the You Mountain Empire. Tanaer Buwuchuan Fuyi was Fuyi Kingdom's most promising genius. At the Void True God stage, he could already kill existences at the peak of the Eternal True God level. It was said that he followed the path of comprehending while simultaneously fusing laws. Once he became an Eternal True God, he would already be close to the Saint level.
Successfully assassinating Tanaer Buwuchuan Fuyi would earn one hundred thousand points of contribution value, equivalent to one million Qiankun Units. Many powerful Saint Realm experts might not even possess such wealth.
The second was the assassination of Tuman, a genius of Manling Kingdom. A successful assassination would earn seventy thousand points of contribution value.
The third was the assassination of Hexiang, a genius of Yi Kingdom. Success would earn fifty thousand points of contribution value...
Fuyi Kingdom, Manling Kingdom, and Yi Kingdom were all hostile to the You Mountain Empire. Naturally, the empire would do everything possible to eliminate the peerless geniuses of enemy nations. The You Mountain Empire had been embroiled in conflict with these three kingdoms for a long time, and battles along their territorial borders continued without end.
Among the missions above, there were also missions to guard the borders, but they were only ordinary-level missions. Conflicts between nations were all low-level clashes. Both sides used them to temper their experts, and it was difficult for them to escalate into wars involving top-tier combat power. Once a war reached the highest level, it would inevitably become a war of extermination—the most brutal kind of war.
Unless major interests were involved, it generally would not rise to that level.
"Assassination missions are all incredibly difficult. Even if one completes them, one has to die in another country, so the rewards are high. But so what if they're high? I'd have no life left to enjoy them." Luo Feng mused. Assassinating someone deep inside another country was the most dangerous thing of all, unless the target came out and gave him an opportunity.
Luo Feng was in no hurry to accept another mission. If he were to consider one, it could only be after comprehending the Primal Chaos Stele.
"The Primal Chaos Stele..." Luo Feng looked forward to it.