NOVPUBChapter 346 -343 Mirage Mountain Range (3rd Update!)
“Ah~”
Tang Yu concentrated, his eyes widened as he observed the remaining half of the Arrow Tower, which was levitating mid-air. A bridge of spiritual power connected to the halved tower.
He pondered for a moment, then suddenly withdrew his spiritual power. The next second, the half-arrow tower fell from the air, disintegrating and vanishing halfway to the ground.
“Constructing in an incomplete state is very unstable; once the spiritual power is withdrawn, it rapidly disintegrates.”
With a wave of his hand,
another Arrow Tower was condensed, this time Tang Yu directly formed the top half, which was indeed much faster than completing an entire tower.
He tried to further reduce the size of the tower, but beyond a certain point, continuing to shrink it would impact the tower’s attack power. Finally, including the firing port, the tower transformed into a spherical form about one meter in diameter, with the chilling firing port facing forward.
Following a similar path, Tang Yu tried and modified other buildings, mainly the Cannon, Mage Tower, Super Demon Prism Tower, as well as the High Altitude Artillery for air defense, and the Blazing Flame Sprayer for close-range attacks…
The cannon retained only a large muzzle; the main parts of the Mage Tower and Prism Tower were the floating crystals at the top of the tower, undoubtedly much smaller compared to the complete buildings.
The defensive structures were heavily modified by him, and being quite unstable, the temporary buildings that originally could last for three minutes now lasted only one or half a minute. However, he didn’t care; the modifications significantly reduced the condensation time, allowing them to be more effective during combat.
Half a minute was entirely sufficient in high-intensity combat… and even if it wasn’t enough, he could always condense the structures again, with only some Source Crystals being consumed.
After all, as a warrior fueled by Consuming Crystals, he feared nothing.
With the preliminary work completed, Tang Yu looked ahead, spreading his arms.
“Rise—”
Behind him, ripples spread out—Arrow Tower spheres, Cannon muzzles, Mage Tower crystals… all appeared in an instant, levitating mid-air, with all attacks targeting anywhere within range according to his thoughts.
Within the range of the cannon, truth pervaded everywhere!
A large number of enemies appeared in the practice space. The modified defensive structures like the Arrow Tower spheres, Cannon muzzles, Mage Tower crystals continually fired, turning the scene into a fiery inferno, annihilating the groups of Demonized Beasts that emerged.
“This power,” Tang Yu couldn’t help but exclaim, “the size reduced and levitating, defensive structures are more concentrated, and naturally, the firepower is greater when targeted.”
“However…”
Feeling the rapid depletion of his spiritual power, Tang Yu frowned.
Currently, he could only maintain around fifty to sixty at the same time, still far from the image he envisioned of “arms wide open, stars spread behind me.”
“The power and speed of this system are sufficient, but there’s one fatal flaw—defense.”
As the core of the system, his own vulnerability was apparent; he was easy prey for anyone targeting him.
Only by protecting himself could he continue outputting. However, among the defensive structures, there seemed to be none specifically for protection.
Tang Yu frowned, browsing through the list of defensive structures. Then, his eyes brightened.
[Energy Suppressing Obelisk: Constructs a force field over a designated area, effectively suppressing the enemy.]
The Transcendent Tier also enveloped around the body in a form of a force field, albeit different, but the force field from the Energy Suppressing Obelisk might potentially be transformed into a defense force field similar to that of the Transcendent Tier.
At least it was an idea, more reliable than other defensive structures.
…
In the following days, Tang Yu engaged in cultivation while refining his new combat system.
The “Trial Tower” had become the hottest topic of those days, with many adventure groups recruiting new members; they even based their criteria on the tier of the “Trial Tower.” Even if someone was slightly higher on the Awakening scale but on a low tier, they were considered to be of little practical use.
Outside,
Ever since that day when the mirage of the sea city appeared, Jing City and its environs had become tumultuous, with more and more forces exploring toward the direction where the mountain range phantom had appeared, ultimately confirming…
The mountain range shown by the sea city mirage truly existed.
It was just tens of kilometers north of Jing City!
There, where only a small hill had existed before, suddenly connected to a seemingly endless mountain range. The mountain range didn’t seem to fully exist on Earth either, as if it was part of a folded space; the northern part of Jing City was just the entrance connecting to the mountain range.
As for the size of the mountain range, no one knew. However, from the sight of that day’s sea city mirage, one could guess its area was definitely not small!
This mysterious and unknown mountain range was named the Mirage Mountain Range!
Many mercenary groups and official high-level forces from Jing City had sent many people into the mountains to explore, their purposes clear.
However, the teams entering the Mirage Mountain Range suffered heavy casualties!
Some entire teams were wiped out, and while some people managed to escape, they went insane.
The Mirage Mountain Range was extremely dangerous, whether due to the monsters inside or the bizarre environment. Most exploration teams stayed in the mountain range for less than a day, and when they came out, only about one in ten team members survived.
Even so, Awakeners continued to enter the Mirage Mountain Range in succession.
The majestic buildings seen on that day made many people envious. Although these unique buildings had not yet been discovered by the Awakeners, there were still other adventures obtained by a few Awakeners.
Some Awakeners ate a strange fruit and spontaneously awakened a special ability; some increased several minor levels immediately after coming out of the mountain range; others obtained some treasures that could refine their bodies and increase spiritual power…
Many adventures stimulated other Awakeners to continue entering the Mirage Mountain Range to explore, only to meet their demise inside.
During this period, Tang Yu also prioritized the Mirage Mountain Range. Lorraine, in Jing City, was operating her branch of the Night Bar and using the bar as a base to develop the Jing City Intelligence Department, continuously sending information back to the territory.
Tang Yu had also sent people to explore the Mirage Mountain Range; Fani’s trio, for instance, had entered the mountains multiple times.
However, even though Fani possessed the strength of the thirteen-tier Awakener and her two companions were on the eleventh and twelfth tiers, which far surpassed the Jing City Awakeners, they repeatedly encountered deadly dangers while exploring the Mirage Mountain Range and had to escape using a Return City Scroll.
In the mountains, numerous forbidden lands existed, and occasionally they would bump into extraordinary creatures and high-tier Demonized Beasts and Mutated Beasts, which were common.
Tang Yu suddenly felt some sympathy for the Awakeners of Jing City.
With insufficient information, they only knew the dangers inside but not how terrifying it was. A group of mostly fifth-tier, at most seventh or eighth-tier, with a few ninth-tier Awakeners entering the mountain ranges to explore, could they really manage well?
…
Jing City.
The exploration teams in the Mirage Mountain Range suffered heavy losses, and some small and medium-sized mercenary groups gradually started to back off. The officials of Jing City also felt it was necessary to change their strategy.
“We can no longer send scattered teams to their deaths; we must concentrate our forces and create an elite squad.”
“Perhaps we could also invite other official sanctuaries to join us, share the risks with more people, making it more secure.”
