Chapter 129
At the same time, Xiao Hei, having broken through, slowly walked over.
At this moment, his appearance has changed dramatically.
His armor turned a gray-black color, with gray lines running through the black armor, flickering like breathing.
The greatsword in his hand was shrouded in a gray-black aura; as the blade sliced through it, even the air itself seemed to decay.
The warhorse beside it had also undergone a tremendous transformation, emanating gray mist and surrounded by gray flames between its hooves, looking incredibly handsome.
"My lord... I feel like I've been reborn."
Xiao Hei's speech was incredibly fluent, even imbued with human emotion.
He gave a solemn knightly salute and said gratefully, "Thank you for your guidance and instruction. If you hadn't reminded me to concentrate and fight against that force, I might never have woken up again."
"You're quite good," Shen Xing said approvingly. "Your ability to fuse with this power is also related to your strong will."
"Remember this: concentrated will can pierce through rock."
"Concentrate your will... pierce through the rock..." Xiao Hei shuddered, a look of understanding appearing in its eerie green pupils. "I understand! Xiao Hei will certainly remember the Lord's teachings!"
Shen Xing: "?"
No, how did you figure that out too?
I just said it offhand, what did you take it all for?
Shen Xing was speechless. What was wrong with the people in this territory? Had they been infected by Hellscream?
Despite this, he still wore a mysterious smile and asked, "I just heard you mention Upper Rank Knights and Luyana, the Black Moon Goddess. What are those?"
Upon hearing this question, a flicker of recollection and confusion crossed Xiao Hei's eyes.
"I'm not quite sure either..."
He gathered his thoughts and replied, "It's just that I have many more memories in my mind, but most of them are in a fragmented form."
"I saw some special images in these fragments of memory."
"I saw myself leading the Black Moon Knights in an earth-shattering battle, and I also saw the great Black Moon Goddess raising a gigantic Black Moon, confronting an ancient being shrouded in mist..."
"As for the rest, they are all vague fragments, and no useful information can be pieced together."
Shen Xing listened thoughtfully.
In this world, most of the creatures summoned by recruitment scrolls do not belong to this era.
They may have come from hundreds of years ago, thousands of years ago, or even from another world.
But regardless of where they came from, they all had one thing in common: they had already died once.
Legend has it that some valiant warriors, upon death, have their souls guided to the Spirit World, where they, along with other spirits, have their memories erased and wander aimlessly.
Only when a being communicates with the Spirit World through a special medium will they be allowed to return to the mortal realm.
These warriors who have returned have had their memories completely erased, essentially becoming blank slates.
However, there are also very special cases where some memories may be awakened during the growth process or when subjected to great stimulation.
Clearly, Xiao Hei is an exception among these cases.
However, it seems that he only awakened some fragments of memories, without much useful information.
So Shen Xing stopped asking questions.
"Absorb this and break through to the Tier Two as soon as possible."
Shen Xing took out a [Black Moon Broken Blade] and handed it over. Just then, Xiao Hei rushed to level 9 and could advance.
"Yes, my lord!"
Xiao Hei solemnly accepted the advancement materials, then mounted his horse and rode off into the distance.
The black warhorse was shrouded in gray mist, and gray flames burned between its hooves, making it seem as if it were walking in the air, without making a sound.
As Shen Xing watched Xiao Hei's retreating figure, he sighed inwardly once again, realizing that choosing to let him absorb the tree heart this time was truly the right decision.
In this way, in addition to Hellscream, there is another creature with great potential in his territory that is worth investing a lot of resources to cultivate.
"It would be perfect if we could promote them to hero units."
"But unfortunately, it's incredibly difficult for any unit to advance to the rank of hero."
"The simplest way is to use [Proof of Hero] to fuse and then advance."
"Besides that, you can find special opportunities in the wild, complete a series of tests, and gain a chance for promotion."
"There are also some more unusual methods, such as making a deal with the devil at a huge cost, or completing an extremely difficult task, but these are too random to list them all."
Shen Xing pondered these things, and then couldn't help but think of this ranking list.
You can earn a Hero's Heart by taking the top spot on the leaderboard.
However, it's clear that achieving the top spot among global players is extremely difficult.
Shen Xing glanced at his ranking.
[95th Place: Shen Xing, Points 715]
About two or three hours had passed since the temple was cleared out.
His ranking has dropped instead of rising, and he's almost out of the top 100.
This is quite normal.
Simply killing the attacking fog monsters yields limited points.
It's estimated that the top 100 lords on the leaderboard have already ventured deep into the mist to hunt down even more monsters.
Therefore, if he wants to maintain his ranking, he also needs to roll up his sleeves like the other players.
Shen Xing didn't have any particular thoughts, since his initial goal was to be in the top 1,000.
At the current rate, maintaining this ranking should be no problem.
"First place is a long way off, let's focus on the present and expand our territory further."
Shen Xing closed the leaderboard, then went to the center of his territory and used the [Black Spirit Wood] he had obtained that day to upgrade the [Great Bonfire].
Next, the [Skeleton Archer] Nest was upgraded to Common ★★★.
As one of only two ranged units in the territory, it's still worthwhile to train them.
Most importantly, these skeleton units consume very little resources and don't need to eat.
Having recently accumulated some resources, Shen Xing decided to launch another wave of troops after completing the upgrade.
After doing all that, Shen Xing took off her glasses.
"Buzz..."
The view shifted instantly; this time, what appeared before me was not the dilapidated ceiling of a rented room, but the chandelier of a detached villa.
The air was filled with the smell of wood from the new home.
Shen Xing got up from the spacious bed and took the elevator to the living room on the first floor.
I was planning to open the food delivery app as usual to get rid of my hunger.
Strangely, even though he hadn't eaten all day, he didn't feel hungry at all; in fact, he felt quite full.
After a moment's thought, I quickly understood.
"It must be because I ate a [Moonlight Bread] in the game; one of these breads is enough for a whole day's worth of meals."
"Looks like I won't need to eat anything from now on; I can just grab a piece of bread in the game."
"That's great, it even saved me money on food."
Shen Xing thought to himself with a smile and then closed the food delivery app.
At this moment, several messages popped up on the Green Bubble.
Cilantro Who Loves to Play: "Spark, Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap!"
"Shen Xing, you're currently ranked 95th on the leaderboard, right?!"
Shen Xing thought for a moment and replied, "It's me."
After receiving an affirmative reply, Cilantro Who Loves to Play sent out a series of excited emojis.
"Hahaha, I knew it was you! You're truly my brother, you're awesome!"
Shen Xing calmly replied, "Just the top 100, what's there to get excited about?"
Cilantro Who Loves to Play: "What are you talking about? That's the top 100! Hua Country only has less than ten people in the top 100 right now, and you're one of them! Tell me, how excited am I?!"
A hint of surprise flashed in Shen Xing's eyes. Fewer than ten people from Hua Country made it into the top 100?
He really didn't know that, since he hadn't looked through the entire ranking list from beginning to end.
It seems there are quite a few experts from different countries.
His ability to enter the top 100 is truly remarkable.
Shen Xing remained calm and composed, saying, "It's only the first day. There are still six days left on the leaderboard. I estimate I'll be squeezed out soon."
"Indeed," Qin Lang agreed. "There are just too many experts this time. Jiayi and I haven't even made it into the top 1,000 yet."
At this point, I Eat Eat Eat Eat Eat, "Just to correct you, I'm now in the top 1000, currently ranked 947th."
Cilantro Who Loves to Play: "..."
"You two dogs, how did you manage to climb the rankings so fast!"
Shen Xing was also somewhat surprised to hear that Xu Jiayi had made it into the top 1,000.
After all, the competition on this ranking list is fiercer than imagined; even making it into the top 1,000 is not something that ordinary geniuses can achieve.
He thought about it in his mind for a moment.
Since entering the game, Xu Jiayi's behavior has been very abnormal, even somewhat freakish.
Her training progress was only one level behind his own.
While Shen Xing was training Elite Two Stars troops, she had already trained Elite One Star troops.
Later, in the Mist Void Realm, she even pulled out two or three Elite Three Stars.
This is truly unbelievable.
It's worth noting that even a player like Qin Lang, who spends money on in-game purchases and gets a lot of rewards by following Shen Xing, can only linger in the top 5,000.
Or rather, Qin Lang's performance is at a normal level.
"Xu Jiayi may also have her own secrets, or perhaps some kind of special ability."
Shen Xing pondered for a moment, but did not intend to delve into it further.
"You two can't leave me behind! I'm already ranked 2300th, and I'll definitely be in the top 1000 before the leaderboard ends!" the Cilantro Who Loves to Play continued in the group chat.
I Eat Eat Eat Eat in surprise, saying, "2300th? That's pretty good, keep it up!"