Strongest Lord by Opening Blind Boxes

Chapter 206 - 182: Ye Qitian, Unlimited Bursting Soldiers

’I need miners—lots and lots of them! But Qiao Meng mentioned he can’t gather resources here. Yamero Star is my exclusive resource location, and only territory residents can harvest from it. That means I have to focus on developing my population of territory residents. The Indigenous People living in Eggshell Village aren’t necessarily considered residents. I’ll need to do some verification...’

Wang Yi organized his thoughts.

A moment later, he used a Town Recall Scroll to return to Eggshell Village. He quickly gathered a group of people, then used the Exile function and another Town Recall Scroll, traveling back and forth to Yamero Star several times. He finally managed to figure out the "exclusive harvesting" rule.

On exclusive resource locations, only territory residents could gather resources.

Soldiers recruited from barracks, units from Recruitment Scrolls, and creatures hatched from Chaos Eggs were, without a doubt, considered territory residents.

However, the Indigenous People were a bit more complicated.

Through his tests, Wang Yi discovered that ordinary Indigenous People, even those living in Eggshell Village, did not count as residents. Only those who had enlisted in the Military Intelligence Camp, been granted an Unsealing Skill Book or Reclassification Items by him, or were bound to a territory building could be considered true territory residents.

For example, Li Huaizheng was the dean of the Hundred Skills Academy. Since he was recorded in the Academy’s information panel, he was one of Wang Yi’s territory residents.

Meanwhile, Zhang Dashan, Yang Qinggu, Pei Xue, Guangkun, and the others were not considered territory residents, even though they had homes in Eggshell Village and helped manage the territory.

They could enlist in the Military Intelligence Camp or reclassify at the Hundred Skills Academy. Only then would they be truly bound to Wang Yi’s territory and become territory residents.

Furthermore, territory residents could respond to recall scrolls. In other words, Wang Yi could use a Town Recall Scroll to teleport along with his territory residents.

Non-territory residents, however, could not!

Additionally, if a non-territory resident was forcibly reclassified by the Exile Court, they would be considered a territory professional. For the duration of their sentence, they would be counted as territory residents and could also be teleported by a Town Recall Scroll.

’If that’s the rule, then it’s not impossible to send miners to Yamero Star in bulk. I can just bring people over and forcibly reclassify them as Bitter Workers. That should do it. But where to get the people? Qixia Mountain? The place is littered with the starving, a famine is raging. It shouldn’t be hard to recruit some miners there. Time waits for no one. I must go as soon as possible...’

With this in mind, Wang Yi went to find Man Datou and Pang Damao.

The small train had already started running its circuit around Mengbai Island and Black Stone Mountain, but half a day later, Wang Yi urgently requisitioned it.

This time, Wang Yi used the Starlight Bracelet to store the massive train directly inside it. He then brought out the Galaxy Airship, took Man Datou and Pang Damao with him, and sped toward Qixia Mountain.

The Galaxy Airship was incredibly fast. Since it flew through the sky and ignored the terrain below, it arrived at Qixia Mountain in less than two hours, hovering over its peak.

Wang Yi looked down and thought that Qixia Mountain was indeed scenic, but not particularly massive. It was a mesa, with a temple built on its flat top. The legendary "strange stones that glowed like rosy clouds in the sunlight" were also truly there.

However, under the appraisal of Wang Yi’s Eye of Insight, the strange stones were identified as "Purple Light Stone," a type of resource ore. They were scattered around the summit, many of them exposed and clearly harvestable.

But it seemed Ye Qitian hadn’t exploited them.

When Wang Yi looked down the mountain again, he was startled by what he saw.

The base of Qixia Mountain was a living hell. Several large armies were locked in a chaotic battle, their war cries unending.

What Wang Yi didn’t know was that for miles around, the common folk had either fled, died, or been captured as a reserve food supply. All manner of human tragedies were unfolding.

The one responsible for it all was none other than Ye Qitian, the Temple Master of Qixia Temple on Qixia Mountain!

He was currently hiding inside Qixia Cave, his brow furrowed as he sighed and muttered curses.

Beside him were two followers he had hatched from Chaos Eggs. To be more specific, one was a monk with a fat head and large ears, and the other was an old beggar highly skilled in Martial Arts.

Originally, Ye Qitian had hatched more than just these two guards from his Chaos Eggs, but with some dying, some fleeing, and others betraying him, it was a wonder he wasn’t completely alone.

But now, Ye Qitian was holed up in Qixia Cave, not daring to venture out.

It was simply too chaotic outside.

’My rise was due to bursting soldiers, and so was my fall. Oh, and that adopted son... I truly regret ever hatching him!’

Ye Qitian stomped his foot in frustration, his heart filled with endless regret.

Not long ago, he had been on top of the world.

He possessed the S-Class Talent, [Unlimited Bursting Soldiers]. This Talent was powerful—absurdly so, even.

It was an active skill with a three-day cooldown that could be used on a barracks-type building. Based on the building’s level, it would consume Chaos Energy and cause the building to continuously ’burst’ soldiers for 12 hours.

While under the effect of [Unlimited Bursting Soldiers], all recruitment from the barracks was completely free!

It required no Chaos Energy, no Gold Coins, and no resources whatsoever.

Moreover, recruitment had no cooldown. In other words, the barracks produced soldiers instantly.

Therefore, whenever Ye Qitian used [Unlimited Bursting Soldiers], the targeted barracks would continuously, madly pump out soldiers. They would charge out one after another—a true "soldier burst."

[Unlimited Bursting Soldiers] was an exhilarating skill.

Ye Qitian figured that with this skill, all he needed was a barracks, and conquering the world would be a simple matter.

His luck was good, and he soon acquired a barracks: the [Beastman Cave].

From this [Beastman Cave], Ye Qitian could recruit Green-skinned Orc Laborers.

Beastman Laborers had low intelligence and no Combat Skills. However, even as mere laborers, their Physiques were stronger than a human’s, and they were simple-mindedly courageous.

Ye Qitian only needed to spend Ten Thousand Points of Chaos Energy to have the [Beastman Cave] activate Unlimited Bursting Soldiers.

And with just a single use, he burst out 300,000 Green-skinned Orc Laborers.

But a problem soon followed.

He had a massive army, but not enough food!

Initially, Ye Qitian didn’t lack food. There were fertile fields at the foot of Qixia Mountain, where he had planted many Potatoes.

But those Potatoes could never feed three hundred thousand Soldiers.

So Ye Qitian made a decisive choice: he would rebel. If he had no food, he would just plunder it. With a powerful army at his command, he ought to be waging war.

In less than a day, he conquered Qixia County at the foot of Qixia Mountain. His forces steamrolled the County Yamen, and the County Magistrate was killed on the spot before he could even escape.

The Beastman Laborers also suffered heavy casualties, several times higher than those of Qixia County’s defending soldiers. But it didn’t matter; he simply had too many troops and could mindlessly steamroll his opposition.

At that time, Ye Qitian thought he had found his path to development: constantly bursting soldiers and constantly waging war, using war to sustain war!

In short, just keep fighting.

’With Unlimited Bursting Soldiers, who needs to worry about logistics?’

’If my soldiers survive, they’re lucky. If they die in battle, even better—it saves on food.’

Therefore, after successfully taking Qixia County, Ye Qitian immediately marched on other county seats, even planning to charge straight for the Southern King’s Prince Mansion.

Ye Qitian, with his Unlimited Bursting Soldiers, had the confidence to do so. As long as he had Chaos Energy, all his Soldiers could be used as cannon fodder to plug the front lines.

And his 300,000 Beastman Laborers did not disappoint. They paved a path of blood, and wherever they went, Mortal soldiers fled at the very sight of them.

Ye Qitian reaped handsome rewards as a result, obtaining numerous system items and even acquiring the Construction Drawings for a second barracks.

The turning point came after he built that second barracks.

That barracks was the [Ogre Lair]. It was of a higher quality than the [Beastman Cave], and from it, he could recruit Ogres.

Ogres were an elite Soldier Type, even stronger, more savage, and more violent than Green-skinned Orc Laborers.

And when recruiting from the [Ogre Lair], there was even a small chance of recruiting a Heroic Level Ogre!

Activating Unlimited Bursting Soldiers on the [Ogre Lair] only cost twenty thousand points of Chaos Energy.

At the time, Ye Qitian had plenty of Chaos Energy. In high spirits, he immediately had the [Ogre Lair] activate Unlimited Bursting Soldiers. Over 12 hours, it burst out two hundred eighty thousand Ogres. He even got lucky and recruited a mutated, Heroic Level Ogre named Zhe Family. This Ogre had two heads—it was a two-headed Ogre.

Ogres were far more vicious than Beastman Laborers. When hungry, they ate people. And so, the chaos began.

Ye Qitian had originally intended to send the 280,000 Ogres to charge straight for the Southern King’s Prince Mansion. But along the way, the starving Ogres’ loyalty plummeted. At first, only small groups roamed about causing trouble—which is to say, eating people. Before long, the vast majority of them were only interested in eating people.

Then, two more things went wrong.

First, Ye Qitian had once used a Chaos Egg to hatch an "adopted son of unparalleled chivalry" named Lv Jing. This Lv Jing was a master of Martial Arts with formidable personal combat strength, and Ye Qitian had been grooming him to be a Grand General.

But after witnessing the Ogres’ brutality, he completely rejected Ye Qitian’s ideology and furiously rebelled. He actually took a group of Beastman Laborers, raised his own banner, and fortified the defenses of a city in Ku Mountain County. He employed a scorched-earth policy, ordering all food and houses outside the city to be burned to halt the Ogre army’s advance.

Ye Qitian was stunned!

He could understand Lv Jing’s betrayal. After all, his adopted son was foolish and obstinate; he didn’t even understand when Ye Qitian explained the game’s rules to him.

He couldn’t, however, have imagined that Lv Jing would be able to lead the Beastman Laborers in a rebellion. It was only then that he realized the impact of hunger on loyalty, and that Beastman Laborers weren’t just war machines but intelligent beings with their own programmed personalities.

He had been too cruel to them, and it had come back to bite him again.

To Ye Qitian’s even greater frustration, after failing to receive an adequate food supply, the 280,000 Ogres also rebelled!

The one leading their rebellion was none other than the two-headed Ogre!

In Ye Qitian’s eyes, that two-headed Ogre was a freak. Two heads, two personalities. One personality pursued love, while the other studied philosophy. A case of pure schizophrenia.

After leading the Ogres in rebellion, he launched a counter-attack on Qixia Mountain, intending to eat Ye Qitian.

Afterward, the Southern King’s Prince Mansion dispatched soldiers to quell the rebellion. With the addition of Lv Jing’s Beastman Army, hundreds of thousands of Soldiers became entangled in a chaotic free-for-all at Qixia Mountain. Many of Ye Qitian’s functional buildings were destroyed in the fray. He hadn’t even had a chance to explore the Chaos Secret Realm, and now his forces were so depleted that he had no choice but to take refuge in Qixia Cave.

He wasn’t worried about his Heart of Chaos being destroyed, however. He had already upgraded it to LV2, and upon leveling up, the Heart of Chaos had gained the rare skill [Earth Escape]. It was now hidden deep beneath Qixia City, impossible for anyone to find.

’How did such a perfect hand turn into this mess? My luck just isn’t good enough. If I’d gotten a soldier type that doesn’t need to eat, like mechs or the Undead, then with Unlimited Bursting Soldiers and an infinite army, I could have steamrolled the entire world...’

Ye Qitian clenched his fists, stomped his foot, and muttered, "I still have a chance. The battle outside just needs to hurry up and end. The Beastman Laborers, the Ogres, let them all die! Just let me save up for one good barracks—just one! I don’t need any other buildings. And I need a bit more Chaos Energy..."

Just then, Ye Qitian heard a sound coming from deeper within the cave.

"Someone’s entered Qixia Cave!"

"Damn it! Is it Lv Jing’s Beastman soldiers? Or the Ogres? It couldn’t be the pacification army from the Southern King’s Prince Mansion, could it?!"

"My Lord, what should we do?"

"Temple Master, rest assured. This old beggar will protect you. No matter who they are, if they wish to harm you, they’ll have to step over my dead body first."

The two followers hatched from the Chaos Eggs stood in front of Ye Qitian.

Ye Qitian was tense, his eyes wide as he stared ahead.

Soon, a figure suddenly appeared in his line of sight: a "Monkey King" clad in Golden Armor, wearing a golden crown adorned with pheasant feathers!

And not just one of them—there were several!

Ye Qitian’s eyes bulged. He was completely dumbfounded.

’What’s going on?’

’Did a group of Adventurers just walk in wearing cosmetic skins?’

While he was still baffled, one of the Monkey Kings surveyed the cave’s interior and said, "So these glowing rocks are Amber Stones? Nice. This Water Curtain Cave is really something!"