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Chapter 417: Shaman's internal war

Mars' cultivation was above Luz's, so normally this sneak attack would not have worked. But Mars had spent a long of energy and did not have his guard up against Luz, so Luz's sneak attack worked.

Luz was a determined person, since he decided to kill the High Priest, he of course would not hold back. His personally refined Seven Segment Centipede could kill anyone with a single bite, but it could not kill the man in front of him. When the centipede bit Mars, Luz's palms came forth and slammed into Mars' chest. Although the Shaman Sorcerers did not practice any cultivation techniques, just Luz's True Spirit Realm cultivation releasing his spirit energy was enough to generate a very powerful destructive might.

Mars' ribs were shattered and he spat out a mouthful of blood. Just like a glass person being shattered, he flew through the air and slammed into an altar where a large dent was formed.

"High Priest!"

The expressions of the Shaman Sorcerers all changed as they stared at Luz who had launched the sneak attack.

The priests on Luz's side stood up and they all stood in front of Luz.

A Shaman priest roared out with a face of anger and confusions, "When faced with the enemy, what are you doing!"

"What am I doing? I actually want to ask Mars what he's doing!" Luz came forward with a cloudy expression and not a single Shaman blocked him, "Attack Green City? This is clearly him wanting to perish together, but he wants us to jump into the pit of fire with him! Even if we win, what significance does a ruined Green City have for us? Even if we win, can we bear the anger of the Eternal Forest? The Savage Highlands are treating us as a disposable piece, are you willing to accept this?"

The Shaman Sorcerers had ugly expressions.

Luz said, "I have already come to an agreement with the new City Lord. As long as we separate from the Savage Highlands, the Shamans can settle here and we will receive Green City's protection. Perhaps, our influence will drop greatly, but we will finally be free!"

The Shamans were split into two factions, one supporting Mars and the Savage Highlands and one supporting Luz and the Green City Shamans. Both sides began to break out in confrontation.

"Jie, jie, jie….." A figure appeared from the hole in the altar. He had white hair and was covered in blood, looking like a terrifying ghost. His skin was already rotten and there was poisonous blood coming from within him, it was clear that he was severely poisoned, "A good traitor looking for glory. Without the religion in the Highlands, where would the Green City Shamans come from? Today I'll exterminate a rebel branch like you!"

The expressions of Luz's priests all changed.

This old fogy was bitten by Luz's Seven Segment Centipede in a situation where he had no defenses, and then he took two palms from Luz. He still didn't die from all of that? The High Priest was even stronger than people imagined.

Mars saw Luz's ugly expression and he immediately revealed a wild smile, "Surprised? You haven't learned all of the Highland Shamans' skills!"

While he was speaking.

Mars spat out several bugs and each one was like a leech filled with blood, but they weren't moving at all. Their bodies turned black as they released poisonous gas, turning into poisonous blood as they eroded a large part of the floor.

The other Shaman Sorcerers immediately understood.

The High Priest had put several gu insects in him and these gu insects parasitized off him. When Luz's fatal Seven Segment Centipede bit the High Priest, these gu insects sucked away most of the curse energy and poison. Therefore, even if the High Priest's injuries were not light, they were not fatal.

Luz was not feeling good, but that did not mean he would collapse. Luz was very clear on the might of his Seven Segment Centipede, so even if the High Priest cured himself of most of the toxins, there would still be a small part left in his body. Adding in the injuries from the two palms, he would not be able to recover that quickly.

"Then I'll ask you to teach me in the Savage Highland's witchcraft!"

Luz released his source spirit. It was grey in colour and when it condensed, it took the form of a fierce looking puppet. This puppet had small eyes and its mouth was drawn back to its ears. Its seven orifices had insects drilling in them, making it look very fierce.

Each Shaman's source spirit all looked like this.

This was like the Southern Summer's Giant Shark Gang. After the Giant Shark Gang members accepted the baptism of the sea race's inheritance, their source spirits changed to resemble giant sharks. After the Shaman Sorcerers became Shaman Sorcerers, their source spirits would also change to take the form of this sorcerer. The Shaman priest's witchcraft powers came from this source spirit.

Mars also released this source spirit. His source spirit was clearly stronger, as his source spirit instantly appeared, shooting out a tooth. This tooth was not big, being the size of a human's tooth, but it was covered in witchcraft runes. It flew out with the source spirit's power and only a hard to see grey form was sent out.

The tooth concealed fatal witchcraft energy. Luz quickly moved to the side and a Shaman Sorcerer standing behind him was hit instead. It was like a drop of water had landed on him and the tooth disappeared without a trace.

Almost in the next second.

The Shaman Sorcerer let out a pitiful cry.

Large amounts of blood came from his mouth, but it was more accurate to say it ran out. Most of his body's blood came out of his mouth, eyes, and nose. His eyes, brain, and vital organs all sprayed out as fragments as this Shaman Sorcerer fell to the ground as a dry corpse.

Luz waved his sleeve and six-seven armoured bugs gathered in his palms, finally forming a little ball half the size of a fist.

This time it was Mars' turn to quickly dodge.

The insect ball Luz threw out exploded on the wall and the entire Shaman temple shook several times. There was an exaggerated flower of blood that bloomed from the insect ball and instantly left a large mark on the wall.

"Only so-so!"

Mars gave a cold laugh.

Although Luz's skills were only second to Mars, his cultivation was too lacking. This was not easy to make up for, so Mars was 70% certain that he would win.

There was no time.

The Seven Segment Centipede's poison spread through his body.

Mars suppressed the poisons, but his face sunk more and more. The priest robes on him began to tremble as a powerful witchcraft energy came from the seven orifices of his source spirit, like releasing a tornado around himself.

Everyone could feel Mars' intentions.

He decided to take care of Luz with a big witchcraft technique.

But at this time, something no one imagined had happened. A vine suddenly penetrated the walls of the temple and instantly pierced through Mars' back, coming out his chest. The bloody vine continued forward until it hit a pillar, shattering his heart and lungs instantly. Mars was thrown into the air by the might and his eyes popped out as a look of disbelief covered his face.

How was this possible?

How could the temple be so easily penetrated?

When Mars looked at where the vine came out, it was where Luz's insect ball had created a flower of blood. He instantly understood something.

The target of the insect ball was not him.

The blood was filled with a strong witchcraft energy that was like strong acid being sprinkled on the wall, quickly corroding it. Finally it created a large hole which also weakened the defensive power of that part of the temple. The gnomes' vines were already surrounding the temple, so they could certainly feel any parts of it weakening. Clark directly chiseled through the wall, causing Mars to be killed by the vine.

"You shouldn't dream of a better ending if I die!"

"I'll take you all with me!"

Mars' figure wriggled a few times as his white hair suddenly turned scarlet red. There were many small bumps on his skin like many insects moving inside his body. There were more and more of them as his body began to become bigger, as if he was turning into a balloon filled with air.

"This is bad."

"He wants to self destruct!"

"Quickly run!"

The Shaman Sorcerers cried out in fear as they scrambled to be the first to escape. Mars body released a large sound as the entire hall was filled with a layer of blood colour. This was an explosion formed from Mars' witchcraft energy, so it also contained a strong curse power.

Some Shaman Sorcerers slow at running were splashed by a bit of the explosion.

Their bodies became uncontrollable and they began to inflate like Mars did. They became large balloons that exploded with waves of blood red energy which caused others to explode when it landed on them.

This was no longer just self destruction.

Mars used his self explosion to cause several dozen people to explode as well.

If this was used in the dense center of a city, perhaps it could blow up an entire city.

Luz led less than half the Sorcerers out and the temple became a sea of blood.

Clark immediately raised his hand, "Quickly seal the Shaman temple, don't let this energy come out!"

The Green Religion priests made their move, causing layers of vines to be added on, finally turning it into a wrapped up grave. The vines were several feet thick and contained this energy in the end. Even if the explosion inside was strong, it could not come out at all.

"Powerful, truly powerful!" Delores patted her rich chest, "That old thing is truly ruthless. Luckily we didn't participate in the battle, otherwise we would have suffered a large loss."

"The Shaman High Priest is dead, the battle is over. We can go over now."

When Chu Tian led Delores over, the gnomes were already cleaning the battlefield. The several dozen Shamans led out by Luz were currently being trapped by the gnomes, waiting for punishment.

Luz shouted out when he saw Chu Tian, "Sir City Lord, we have done what you have asked for!"

Chu Tian hinted at the gnomes to release them.

The gnomes did not immediately comply and first looked to Clark.

Clark had no other choice. The reason why the gnomes could easily win was mainly because of Chu Tian, so he could only wave his hand, "Let them go."

Chu Tian threw the antidote to Luz, "You have made the right choice. There is no benefit to fighting to the end right now and I think you do not hope the Shaman followers will all die in this fight!"

Luz kept nodding.

This battle was the Shaman's complete loss.

If the Shaman believers all died and without fresh blood to supplement their losses, the Shaman Religion would be unable to recover. There was no meaning to this fight, the Shaman Religion had already collapsed, so they did not have another opportunity!

Chapter 418: Acting City Lord

Green City was a forest city and the difference between a city and a tribe was that the cities were more open, with more free trade markets and different races. It was similar to the various sized small towns within the forest. However, the city management was more strict and only qualified merchants or city recognized adventurers could enter.

Green City had been managed by the gnomes for five hundred years, so the people with residence qualification, store ownership, business qualification, and entrance qualifications for different merchants, races, and influences was not small.

A forest city mainly earned its revenue from the taxes for business and residence. Green City accounts were much higher than people on the outside. The disturbance this time, it was impossible for others not to know. Currently, in the taverns, various merchants, adventurers, and gnomes were all talking about this matter.

"Hey, guys, do you know?" A gnome businessman said in an exaggerated manner, "A large fight almost erupted in Green City just yesterday!"

Another forest merchant nodded, "That's right, that's right. Green City is too unsafe right now, can we come back and have good business in the future? It's said that the surrounding tribes are rebelling and it seems like Green City is barely hanging on. It's better to just throw away our goods and run."

"You can all be assured." A local gnome in the tavern quickly explained everything. After all, the main revenue for Green City were these caravans, so if they lost faith in Green City, it would be a large blow to the gnomes, "This crisis was caused by the Shamans and the Shamans have already lost most of their power, so there is no threat anymore."

Another gnome added, "Green City has already opened our warehouses to the local tribes to help with the dangers of the famine for the local tribes. Although Green City will lose quite a bit, after this, the surrounding tribes will all be more united. When invaders come in the future, we will be able to unite against these enemies!"

The forest merchants all had bitter expressions.

Who doesn't know your Green City is already crumbling away. Even if you survive this time, can you survive the next time?

An adventurer with inside knowledge asked, "That's right, I've heard that Green City didn't suffer much damage all because of the help of a mysterious human. Otherwise Green City would have had to pay a large price to solve this crisis, how could they be undamage like now!"

"Is that true? Where did this human come from? To have this kind of skills, why have I never heard of them before!"

A gnome scratched his head and said, "My grandfather is a Green Religion priests and he has seen this human before. He was called…..Chu Tian? Anyway, it's a human who's not even twenty years old."

This name was indeed unfamiliar to the forest locals. They had never heard of this person doing anything in the forest, so these people were very shocked to hear that Chu Tian could solve this disaster for Green City.

But they were clearly startled a little too early.

At this time, another adventurer charged into the tavern. He was holding an announcement just issued by the Green City gnomes with a strange look on his face as he shouted, "Damn, something big has happened! Quickly come and see this!"

"What mischief is Hansen up to?"

"Could it be there will be war soon?"

There was a stir in the tavern as all the merchants began to discuss. They immediately took the announcement from the adventurer's hands because they wouldn't know if they didn't look. When they saw the contents, everyone's eyes almost popped out.

"What is written on it?" A person anxiously shouted, "I don't understand the gnome language! Quickly translate it for me!"

"This is the most recent news!"

"That human's true identity has been revealed, he is the Green City City Lord personally appointed by the Eternal Forest's Elven King!"

"My god!"

"Is this true?"

"Is the Elven King's head broken!"

Everyone cursed out and everyone knew Green City couldn't be held, but there they had obtained some secret information. The Eternal Forest had wanted to claim this territory, so these people have all calmed down. As long as the Eternal Forest took over Green City, with the strength of the elven army, Green City would have the chance to prosper again.

In the end?

The Elven King had accepted it and give it to a human.

Wasn't this a joke? If the elven army did not come, how could a foreign human possibly stabilize the situation?

"There is more, there is more!"

"Green City's acting City Lord Clark has already taken the initiative to resign and is now studying as part of the Green Religion's priest laboratory. He made the decision to allow that human Chu Tian to become the new acting City Lord!"

"The announcement states that from this day forth, the human Chu Tian has already taken over the City Lord's Castle and is already planning to control all of Green City's business!"

This truly was shocking!

It was like a bomb exploding in their mouths!

It made people unable to close their mouths. Was this a joke? It was fine if Eternal Forest was just trying to cause trouble, but were the gnomes also causing trouble with them?

"There is a bit of news. This human was the leader of a small influence on the edge of the Forest of Chaos and is a merchant from a small company. He came here alone to become Green City's City Lord."

"Damn, a wet behind the ears brat, how is he qualified to become Green City's City Lord!"

"Fuck, the gnomes might as well let father be the City Lord!"

"Is Green City about to be finished?"

Not only among the merchants and adventurers, there was even a large stir among the gnomes. How could sir Clark allow a human become the acting City Lord? This was just too unreasonable!

...

Around half an hour ago.

Chu Tian had just accepted the appointment.

Although there was an accident with his plan and he couldn't gain control of the forest tribes, it didn't really matter. The gnomes and Shamans had a deep seated contradiction, so the Shamans headed by Luz could not win the gnomes' trust and they were facing the retaliation of the Savage Highlands. The most correct way for them was to support Chu Tian as the City Lord. This would ensure the Shaman's safety in Green City and would leave room for them to develop.

The Minotaur Arnold also supported Chu Tian, as well as the Demonic God Religion Delores was from. Chu Tian did not have many pieces he could use, but from the merit of solving this problem, Clark still gave the acting City Lord position to him.

Chu Tian led Delores on the road to the City Lord's Castle and Delores had a slightly sad expression.

"Hey, I have succeeded on the first step. Since I'm the acting City Lord now, it isn't far from the City Lord's position. You have also been promoted to the City Lord's assistant, shouldn't you be celebrating?" Chu Tian shook his magnificent City Lord's robe which was made for him by the gnomes, "How about some passionate hugging or kissing."

If it was normal times, Delores would have played a bit with this human, but she wasn't in the mood right now, "This decision being announced will surely cause a grit stir among the gnomes. Eternal Forest had appointed a human as Green City's City Lord, perhaps no one will accept this fact. Are you not afraid of your subordinates rebelling?"

There was no doubt.

This human Chu Tian was indeed very capable. In this fight with the Shamans, without Chu Tian's help, the gnomes would have suffered heavy losses. However, he just a single human. Without setting the environment up, he was already announcing his position.

Chu Tian simply did not have a power that belonged to him in Green City. The Demonic God Religion did not have much influence, Luz was only being pressured into helping him, and although a few old gnomes supported him, most of the gnomes would not accept a human as a City Lord.

This current act was to push Chu Tian over the edge. It looked very beautiful on the surface, but the depths of the water were very deep!

Chu Tian's situation was a lightning rod City Lord.

Delores said, "I think the gnomes are deliberately causing trouble for you. You have made a large contribution and have been recognized by Eternal Forest, as well as being appointed by the Elven King. The gnomes will not be bored enough to deal with you, but they will still secretly wait for you to make mistakes."

Chu Tian was just a bound acting City Lord.

As long as he was not the true City Lord, the gnomes would have space to act. Green City's complicated situation was not just solved with the Shamans, there were still many other internal problems to take care of. After Chu Tian was raised to the position of acting City Lord, the situation became more complicated.

If Chu Tian made a mistakes, the gnomes could look to the Eternal Forest and ask the Elven King to assign someone else, like an elven expert.

This was already giving Chu Tian a chance.

As well as the gnomes taking a step back.

Even if Chu Tian had a large merit, the gnomes were still undecided. There was still doubts to his identity, power, and position.

"It's fine, I like a challenge."

Chu Tian entered the magnificent City Lord's Castle and stood in front of a wide window. The sunlight sprinkled in making the room very bright. When he looked outside, what greeted him was a field of white.

When he opened a door.

There was a natural little garden inside.

There was lush green grass and hundreds of flowers in bloom. There was a little river running through the middle, finally falling down a cliff as a silver waterfall.

The sea of clouds were like waves as they flew over like little islands. This was the peak of the mountain range. The City Lord's Castle Chu Tian was in stood at the center of the peak, as a castle built at the summit. He could look over the entire mountain range from here, look over the entire Green City area.

The City Lord's Castle was very big, having over a hundred levels. It could be seen far away from below and half of the entire peak had been turned into a castle. The city perfectly integrated itself into nature and it was simply a work of art.

The holy light shined down from the clouds.

The entire world was covered in a strong spiritual pressure.

This place was truly a paradise. Green City was in a very good place, but it was a pity there were too few people, making it look quite desolate. However, this situation would not continue for long. As long as Miracle Commerce moved their headquarters here, Green City's influence will become bigger and bigger until it became a pivotal city in the Forest of Chaos.

Chu Tian was very satisfied with this castle. He turned to his assistant and said, "Alright, we can't slack off on the first day. Immediately take out all the documents that need to be processed, this City Lord is going to start working."

Chapter 419: City Lord's troubles

In the City Lord's work hall, Chu Tian was sitting on a white jade gem encrusted throne with his legs crossed. He was holding a cup of freshly brewed tea from his assistant. The water was good water, using the Water of Life from the Green Religion Temple. The tea leaves were also good leaves, they were the high quality elven green tea.

He was very satisfied.

There was a smooth mirror as tall as a person in front of Chu Tian, with the image going from fuzzy to clear, finally revealing a girl's figure. Although she wasn't tall, she was slender and graceful with skin as white as snow. Her body was exquisite, being big, slender, long, and round where it should be. She was filled with vitality and there could not be a single fault to be found.

She bent her face in and took a close look.

This allowed Chu Tian to inspect her face at a close distance which was simply as smooth as china. Her large eyes were like crystals, her nose was tall and slender, her lips were small and red, and her black hair draped over her shoulders. She looked very cute and beautiful.

Chu Tian lazily shook his gown, "How about it, I didn't lie to you. Why aren't you greeting me as sir City Lord yet!"

"Wa!" Meng Yingying's eyes lit up as she released a series of questions from her mouth, "This is your office? It looks so luxurious! What is that behind you, a garden? Why does it seem like it's in the clouds? You really succeeded in becoming the City Lord? Why is it so fast!"

"Wouldn't you know if you just come and see?" Chu Tian waved his hand like she shouldn't mention small matters to him, "What is the situation with Oldman Small Town?"

"Elder sister has unified the surrounding area and is now planning to build a business and industrial city. The initial plan will contain two million people, so Miracle Commerce will have a lot of labour to use. The new crystal oil has been mined and there is more than we imagined, so we can start researching a new generation of Source Energy Weapons. Vivian has developed the fourth Space Warehouse and the Flower Fairies have constructed a stable Spiritual Domain. Our cultivation has increased by a large amount, and alos….."

Un, un, not bad.

Everyone didn't slack off.

"Since everything is developing smoothly, come as soon as possible. I'm lacking in helpers here, I need the help of you and the young miss."

"Alright!"

Meng Yingying revealed a happy expression. She wanted to come for a long time.

"Yingying, are you talking to Chu Tian? I seemed to have heard his voice." At this time, there was a magnetic girl's voice coming from the side before a fiery bodied beauty appeared in the mirror. Who was it if it wasn't the young miss?

Chu Tian immediately greeted the young miss.

Meng Qingwu saw Chu Tian sitting in the City Lord's throne, so of course she was very surprised. She never thought Chu Tian would make this much progress this quickly. Chu Tian did not seem to hide anything from the young miss because he immediately described the situation to her.

"Speaking of this, your position is still not stable. We need to take out large amounts of money to develop Green City, luckily Miracle Commerce has been earning large amounts these past few months, so now we have quite a bit stockpiled." Meng Qingwu said without hesitation, "If we don't calculate the value of the other resources, Miracle Commerce has a total of twenty five thousand source stones stored. Miracle Commerce has a large store, so we need to keep five thousand low grade source stones in stock. I will put the other twenty thousand source stones into the company's Space Warehouse, so you can use it if you need money on that side. I will quickly exchange the resources so you have more source stones to use for development."

Miracle Commerce was already this rich?

This number had surpassed Chu Tian's expectations. This was just the source stone reserves and if Miracle Commerce exchanged their items for source stones, it had to be at least several times that. Chu Tian was instantly filled with confidence.

With a good wife like the young miss, Chu Tian did not need to worry at all.

There was the clear sound of footsteps in the hall. It was Delores who had returned.

"Alright, let's not talk today. This City Lord will go all out in working." Chu Tian said goodbye to the young miss and Yingying before turning off the communication mirror.

He looked up.

Peng!

Various scrolls, lists, and notes was placed in front of him like a small mountain. There were over several hundred scrolls that completely shocked Chu Tian.

What kind of nonsense is this?

"Why is my beloved sir City Lord in a daze?" The beautiful City Lord's assistant Delores had a trace of a mischievous smile flashing in her eyes, "This is only a small part. There are three filled archive next door that all need the City Lord to look over them."

"Is this right! Why is there so many?"

"Think about it. There are taxes for each region, the caravan registration information, the city personnel information, the city development information, the research lab information, the citizen registry, the city's planning draft, the water system information, the planting information, the public safety information…..Everything is here. Do you think a City Lord just gives orders?"

"Fine, fine. We'll give these things to the young miss when she comes." Chu Tian wiped off his sweat. He never thought that being a City Lord would be this troublesome and this was like a bucket of cold water splashing over him, "What do I need to know now?"

When had there been a City Lord like you?

Delores secretly criticized him, but she still replied, "Green City's situation is less than optimal, the gnomes have a high deficit. I've looked over last year's expense reports, it's actually 165% of the revenue. The gnomes have already come close to becoming bankrupt and their tax income over the past ten years have been less than 50% the normal amount. This falling down trend is very serious, do you understand what that means?"

"What does it mean?"

"The Eternal Forest and Green City had an agreement. The gnomes would hand the city to the elves and the gnomes would be able to keep all their wealth, but the Eternal Forest needed to pay the consumption the gnomes used to pay. Speaking of this, since you've became the City Lord, you took over the debts of the gnomes. According to the current revenue and consumption, you need to pay around twenty six thousand and five hundred low grade source stones every month by a conservative estimate."

The fox clan was very shrewd with money.

This was completely manifested on Delores, being able to clearly understand the finance situation in this short period of time.

Pu!

Chu Tian almost spat out a mouthful of tea onto her, "Having to give several tens of thousands of source stones every month. This bucket that is filled with holes, why would the Eternal Forest accept this? Isn't this a joke!"

"You have to look at whose hand it is. The elves are not rich, but they can still accept this small amount. Moreover, if Green City had the elves' strength, they would quickly restore their popularity and it would become a profitable business, without needing them to do anything else. So to the elves, this was a business where they couldn't not make a profit." Delores said this before looking at Chu Tian, "In your hands…..Don't say that I'm attacking you. Since you've taken over, half the Green City caravans are preparing to leave and the other half is already on the road. This month's tax revenue has shrank by a large amount and it has crippled our finances, so I think you should start praying."

A hole that would cost several tens of thousands of spirit stones each month.

Isn't this not a small number for anyone?

Chu Tian's Miracle Commerce had money, but they had been established not long enough and their base couldn't compare to the large clans of the forest. Now that they had a large plate in front of them, they couldn't afford to eat it.

"What are these source stones being spent on? Can we cut a bit of it?"

Delores quickly looked over the expense reports, "These are mainly being used to buy materials, supply the Green City army, consumed in the gardens, and being used to pay the gnomes' living fees. This makes up around half of it."

"What is the other half for?"

"Of course it's for research!" Delores rolled her eyes, "It's not like you don't know, the gnomes are the race with the strongest intellectual curiosity and desire to explore. The gnomes' research is considered high grade in the entire Forest of Chaos, so each laboratory requires a large amount of resources."

If Chu Tian were to take over the business in Green City.

Of course there were ways to reduce the basic consumption of resources and army expenses, but these things were very small and didn't even amount to a fourth of the expenses. The most expensive expenses were the gnome living fees and the gnomes' research budgets, this was the basic condition the gnomes had given to the Eternal Forest.

The Elven King had promised to agree to these.

Since he had been appointed as the permanent City Lord, Chu Tian and Miracle Commerce naturally had a duty to shoulder this promise.

Chu Tian never would have thought that after working hard to sit on the City Lord position, not only would he gain no benefits at all, he would also have to support several hundred thousand gnomes. This large pressure was enough to give him a strong headache.

Clark wants to chase me away with difficulties!

However, these gnomes are underestimating me too much!

Chu Tian thought about it a bit before saying, "Send out my first order now. When this City Lord is in charge, there will be no taxes charged on any business in this city."

"You're crazy!" Delores' eyes popped open, "This is no different from breaking an arm. The financial deficit is already severe enough, do you feel this hole isn't deep enough yet?"

"It's like you just said, half the merchants are preparing to run and the other are already leaving, so what's the use in trying to fight for that tax revenue? We need to keep people here before we think of a way to make money off them. As for this financial hole, reduce the efficiency as much as possible and I will make up for the rest." Chu Tian said with a face filled with disdain, "Isn't it ten thousand source stones? It isn't like I can't take that out!"

"You….." Delores knew that Chu Tian's backing was not simple, but seeing how generous Chu Tian was, not even placing this large amount in his eyes, she couldn't help raising Chu Tian by several points in her heart, "Alright, it's fine as long as you feel there is no problem."

Chu Tian did not care what kind of stir he caused in Green City or even the Forest of Chaos, the first thing was to restore order.

I'm very interested in the research facility. Come, let's go and take a look."

Chu Tian's second matter was to understand the gnomes' situation. After all, the gnomes can be considered a rarely seen highly intelligent race in the forest, so they had a high compatibility to Miracle Commerce.

Green City had been constructed for an entire five hundred years.

The gnomes laboratory had also been constructed for an entire five hundred years.

This definitely could not compare to the Southern Summer Country's environment. Chu Tian wanted to personally see it and see what was different about it.

Chapter 420: Research base

When the first order was announced.

Green City was filled with a stir again.

This was basically cutting off a large part of one's foundation, this was an unbelievable matter in any city, not to mention that Green City was already in a bad situation. If they cut off the revenue from the merchant caravans, what would the city rely on to support themselves?

Clark quickly looked for Chu Tian to confirm this matter.

Chu Tian did not explain his actions and instead arrogantly said, "You must look a little further into the future. Green City already has too few people, so what use is this tiny bit of taxes? It would be better to create the first tax free city in the Forest of Chaos and instead increase our popularity first. You can be assured, I will personally give the gnomes' living expenses and expenditures, there will not be a single source stone missing."

A fool has more money and those who have money speak loudly.

This made the gnomes feel confused.

Could it be there was another influence supporting this human? Otherwise how can he support such a large hole of wealth without even changing expressions? If they could fill this hole, that influence was not simple!

But seeing Chu Tian give this solemn vow.

Although the gnomes were dissatisfied with him, they couldn't do anything.

"Clark, you came right on time." Chu Tian said to him, "I am prepared to see visit the gnome constructed city and research lab, I wonder if this is convenient or not?"

These couldn't be shown to outsiders.

But Chu Tian was the acting City Lord now. If the acting City Lord did not understand the situation inside the city, how could he govern it?

Clark and the other gnome elders discussed this for a few minutes, "Of course this is no problem, please come with us."

The gnomes' research lab has always been a secret and one of the most mysterious places of the area. Being able to stay with Chu Tian, Delores had a chance to widen her world.

The gnomes walked while giving an introduction, "The gnome research lab was established the same time as Green City. It has a very glorious history and is the most perfect research lab in the entire forest."

A Green Religion temple constructed into the wall of a mountain was the entrance to the gnome research labs. After walking through a tunnel in the mountain, a rectangular lift appeared in front of them. Chu Tian and Delores stood in the lift and the lift immediately began to sink down. There was transparent crystal stone windows around them and when they were heading down, they could see the different layers of rocks through the window.

Very deep, very deep.

Around four-five hundred meters underground.

Finally a giant underground world appeared in front of them.

Delores lost all control of her muscles as her chin fell down and her eyes popped out. She found it very hard to believe that there was such a large space underneath Green City, this was simply unthinkable.

The gnomes explained, "The Forest of Chaos geological structure is very special. Our ancestors have studied this and were surprised to find that there were many empty spaces underneath the Forest of Chaos, with a few deep underground worlds inside. There were many devils, dark spirits, and some places where the bottom couldn't be seen. There were also the possibility of a secret from the great ancient era."

"There are no demons under Green City?"

"It isn't that there isn't the possibility, but up to this point, we haven't found any."

When the lift was about to arrive at its destination, Chu Tian looked down from above. He could see that near a gnome warehouse, there was a set of iron tracks that had a train parked on it. Each train had a steam engine cart at the front and end, with over thirty carts in between them.

It was actually an underground station!

In front of them, there were many palaces, looking very impressive. It seemed like several hundred thousand people could live in these underground palaces. The palaces were all crafted out of metal and had a very modern look to them.

There were many metal pipes here that were several meters thick which needed several people to hold them. The small ones were several centimeters and were around the size of a finger. They were intricately overlapped and was very condensed, with many of these small and large pipes connected all over the research lab.

There was not only a single underground palace.

If they looked in the distance, there were several lights shining from other palaces. There were seemingly bottomless abysses between the palaces and the underground palaces were lights shining in this dark world. There were floating rail tracks connecting them.

The underground world was not as dark or sinister as imagined. Actually in addition to the lights on the palaces, there were also glowing crystals in the surrounding cliffs and various strange glowing plants.

Delores even saw glowing mushrooms that were at least thirty meters wide and were like giant bulbs illuminating a large area. Water flowed down from the rocks and turned into a thin waterfall, falling into the bottomless abyss.

There were strange lizards, bats, and other beings that were living in the cliff. This place that did not see the light of the sun had actually formed such a strange ecosystem. It made one sigh at the thought of its mysterious creator.

"This underground space is immeasurably deep and it has never been explored to the bottom before, but this underground world is rich in resources and the deeper it is, the richer the resources. Of course, the deeper we go, the more likely it is we will meet a dangerous being that could attack us."

Chu Tian stared into the bottomless pit while being lost in thought.

Concerning the world underneath the Forest of Chaos, of course he had some understanding.

This was a very complex place, especially in this era. There were many unknown dangers hidden here, but there were also many hidden treasures.

If there was a chance in the future, he had to properly explore it.

Of course, there was no opportunity now since he did not have the strength.

Clark said in a proud voice, "The gnomes have used an entire two hundred years to complete this transport network!"

The gnomes' transport system was made of trains and cable cars.

When they came out of the lift, there was a station in front of them. There were several carts together on the train, densely packed together. This was the gnomes' underground train.

"The gnomes have a total of seven underground research labs and we have discovered over a hundred precious minerals." Clark proudly said, "These underground railroads are like blood vessels that connect each laboratory, mine, breeding field, and living quarters together. All together, it forms a highly effective network."

"This really is a complicated and difficult assignment, a normal person could not have done it!" Delores said to Clark, "How do you start these trains?"

"Come with me into the power room and you'll see." Clark opened the power room of a train and there was a honeycomb shaped energy storage inside. Each chamber was filled with a red powder and the entire thing had a source energy array on it, with many large source stones embedded inside to give it power, "The train's energy source is stable fire attributed crystal powder. This powder release a large amount of flames and energy, which is ultimately absorbed by the source energy array, forming a complex energy system. This energy is then used to move the three hundred ton train, allowing it to have a max speed of three hundred kilometers."

Chu Tian was a bit surprised by this.

Although the gnomes' technology did not enter his eyes.

It could be considered quite advanced for this era.

The cost of the flame crystals was not high and with the crystals powering the train, the cost was reduced quite a bit. However, the source energy array needed to consume source energy to run.

The consumption of source stones was not a small amount!

Clark explained, "For the basic operations of this system, it requires at least one thousand low grade source stones each month."

Too fucking wasteful.

This was a completely unnecessary consumption!

Miracle Commerce's Source Energy Batteries were a lasting and cheap source of source energy. Chu Tian only needed to make a simple changes to save a large amount of source stones.

"Now we ask sir acting City Lord to enter the gnomes' laboratory!"

The gnome train thundered off, moving towards the palace in front of them. There were train tracks all over the palace and they could clearly see everything while riding through on the train.

"This is the fire energy research room."

"This is the water energy research room."

"This is the Water of Life creation room!"

"This is..."

Chu Tian passed through the research laboratory on the gnome train and it could be considered that he had experienced how luxurious the gnome laboratory was.

The gnomes by nature loved to explore.

It was no wonder they could give away Green City so easily. This was because to the gnome, as long as they had the underground laboratory and the resources needed for it, it was more than enough.

"Why is this place so big?" Delores looked at the large empty space in front of her, "What is this place?"

"This is the underground being research lab."

"Underground beings?"

Clark opened the door to the laboratory and large prison cells arranged in rows appeared in front of them. There was a strange monster being locked up inside each prison cell.

Delores looked at the insides of the first prison cell. It looked a bit strange, with an evil and thin looking body which was supported by a few antennas. It had a head as big as a bulls with a single glowing eye in the middle.

Suddenly.

With a peng sound!

Delores was shocked.

This being sent out a beam of light from its eye and if it wasn't for the gnomes' barrier, this light beam was fast enough to melt steel. Delores would not have been able to avoid it.

Delores asked, "What is this monster?"

"Truly ignorant." Chu Tian did not wait for the gnomes to explain, "This thing is called an Evil Eye, a common being that lives in the dark underground. Its main ability is to shoot beams of light from its eye."

Clark and the other gnomes looked at Chu Tian with looks of admiration.

"This thing is rarely seen in the above world, this shows that the City Lord is truly knowledgeable!"

"Che, what does this count for?"

Chu Tian revealed a disdainful grin. He immediately went to look at the other beings, but he had to praise the gnomes, being able to gather all these dark creatures together. This was simply like a museum.

He also finally understood why the gnomes spent so much money on these laboratories.

The scale, equipment, and level of theses laboratories were at peak level in this era. Only spending several tens of thousands of low grade source stones on this each month was already very thrifty.

Clark asked, "The gnomes do not have any other things we're fond of, we just like seeking the truth. Although most of what's studied in the gnome laboratory does not have much use, this is where the gnomes' joy for life comes from. So if you really want to become the City Lord, this laboratory….."

"You're thinking too much. You need to understand, I am a scholar." Chu Tian patted the gnome's shoulder, "This laboratory is the true treasure of Green City, those castles on the surface are nothing compared to this. Not only am I not closing this laboratory, I want to invest ten times, no a hundred times the resources, talents, and technology, making this laboratory even more magnificent."

The mouth of Delores nearby popped open, but she couldn't say a word.

Clark led the gnomes to reveal a look of gratitude and admiration.

Chapter 421: Underground world

How could Chu Tian not be happy?

The solid foundation the gnomes had built over several hundred years, how much effort would it save Chu Tian? This was like a person buying a house and being given a magnificent beast carriage, servants and bodyguards, and even a beautiful female maid. This was just too beneficial.

The gnome laboratory was this era's standard and even the powerful empires of the continent were like this. With this solid foundation and the technology and team Chu Tian had, its future value could not even be imagined.

Chu Tian was filled with anticipation to use this laboratory.

The gnomes' thoughts were not as complicated as the humans, but the gnomes could feel that Chu Tian's words were not empty words. This human seemed like he really valued research and it was beneficial for the gnomes if this kind of person became the City Lord.

There was no doubt the elves were strong, but they were not interested in this. So, if Chu Tian fully supported their research laboratory, he would gain the approval of most of the gnomes.

There were many low level dark beings locked in the dark life form lab, like the Evil Eye, Cave Spiders, and others. There were several hundreds of them, so it was not a small number to feel them all.

Chu Tian fell into deep thought.

What had the gnomes caught these things for?

Did they want to create life? To create life was a peak technology, it was hard to imagine the gnomes being able to accomplish this.

Clark explained, "In the underground world, there are countless beings like this who constantly harass us. We wanted to examine them to find their weakness, giving us a better way to deal with them."

Chu Tian looked at a large Cave Spider and thought for a few seconds, "You're saying that there are many of these creatures around here?"

"The underground creatures are not the same as the surface, they are much more resilient. Most of them gnaw on the dark plants underground or directly eat crystals. Like the Evil Eye, the Evil Demon, and the other monsters directly live in the crystal ore, directly gnawing on the crystal ore to increase their strength. They breed incredible quick and are endless like cockroaches or mice. I suspect that in the areas we know of, there are at least several tens of thousands of them. They cause a large headache for us."

"That many?" Chu Tian's eyes lit up, "Good! Very good!"

The gnomes looked at each other. What was the City Lord suddenly calling good for.

Were all these monsters hidden underground a good thing?

"Do you have a map?"

"Map? Of, yes!"

This was a map of the underground laboratory and clearly mark the positions of the palaces and railroads, as well as the surrounding mines and tunnels that have been explored. As for the places where dark beings occasionally appear, there were gnomes guarding that area. They were preventing them from attacking the laboratory and preventing them from attacking Green City.

This underground world was very complicated, it was like a giant maze.

According to what Chu Tian knew about this world, the light energy was distributed in the sky and the dark energy was deep in the ground. The deeper one went, the more negative the energy became. It was unknown how deep the Forest of Chaos underground world was, but what was certain was that there were evil dark beings deep in this world.

The gnomes did not dare explore too deep or explore too far, they were worried they would meet a terrifying monster they couldn't deal with. But even on this level, there were still many monsters living here.

"Come, we're going here to take a look."

The place Chu Tian mentioned was a tunnel.

Because the opening looked like an open demon's mouth and the stone was a terrifying dark red colour, people called this tunnel the Devil's Maw.

Most of the underground monsters the gnomes met came from the Devil's Maw, so the gnomes considered the Devil's Maw a deeper and more terrifying underground space. In order to not annoy any beings they shouldn't annoy, the Devil's Maw was a place no one was allowed to explore.

"Elder!"

Several gnome guards stationed here saw the train stop at the Devil's Maw station and immediately ran over out of curiosity to ask what was happening.

"Sir acting City Lord." Clark looked at Chu Tian and asked, "Are you certain you want to go in? Even the gnomes cannot easily explore this place, even we do not dare explore too deeply. For you to face adventure in right now, I'm afraid….."

"It's fine, I'm not a fool. I'll turn back once things aren't right."

"Alright then."

Chu Tian drew his sword and walked in.

Delores followed without any hesitation.

Clark saw that he could not change Chu Tian's mid, so he could tell the gnome soldiers to prepare themselves before leading some old priest in. At this time, Chu Tian had already moved forward quite a bit.

Delores looked at the surrounding rocks and spoke while walking, "The dark aura around here is very thick, it's very uncomfortable."

The fungus and vines in the Devil's Maw were mostly a strange dark purple or blue colour and the stones were a dark red colour. The entire tone was dark with the cavern spreading in all directions, sometimes being narrow and sometimes being wide. Sometimes it would be very steep and sometimes it would cut off. In short, there were strange noises all around them, giving off an ominous feeling.

Chu Tian felt the fluctuations in the air, "There are monsters coming."

Before his voice even fell.

A sharp sound came from all around them, as large figures came out one after the other. They moved very quickly and even in this rough terrain, they were able to move with such speed.

Other than Chu Tian, everyone was was in the True Spirit Realm.

Delores was prepared to make a move, but before she could even use the Demonic God Religion's summoning technique, she felt like she had been hit several times. Instantly her head went dizzy as she couldn't stand straight, falling onto Chu Tian beside her.

Chu Tian quickly supported Delores.

A fierce looking figure charged forward, sweeping out with several sharp claw strikes, attempting to rip Chu Tian and Delores to pieces.

"Damn, seeking death!"

Chu Tian's blade lit up with faint blue flames as a brilliant sword qi flew out. The monster gave a pitiful cry as it flapped it wings and flew away. Although it hadn't been slashed in half by the sword qi, it was still hit with the Netherworld Flames. Without enough time to move far, its body was covered in blue white flames as it turned into ashes.

The Green Religion priests were very shocked.

Chu Tian's casual slash was able to display this kind of power!

This was definitely not something an Awakened Soul Cultivator could release, even a True Spirit Realm expert might not be able to easily block it. This human youth truly wasn't simple.

"All of you be careful!" Clark slightly recovered from his dizziness and quickly shouted, "It's the Bat Demons! They have a spiritual attack, it is very hard to to deal with!"

Chu Tian felt a few faint spiritual attacks, but this bit of spiritual attack could not affect him at all. When he made his move just now, he had clearly seen what had attacked them. It was actually something with a human for, but was a monster with giant bat wings. They all had very strong builds, weighing at least two hundred kilograms.

Spiritual attacks could affect True Spirit experts?

Then this was a really incredible monster. Chu Tian noted that the Bat Demon's spiritual attack was using sound waves to release a wide scope non differentiating attack. He couldn't help thinking that if there was such a monster on the battlefield, it would be able to sweep through a large part of it!

This was not exaggerated at all.

Even a True Spirit expert like Delores, when she was attacked without any preparations, she had lost her battle strength from becoming dizzy. Wouldn't normal Awakened Soul Cultivators fall down and bleed from all seven orifices?

Good, very good. If he could tame this kind of monster and use them in Green City, would Green City have to fear invaders? If these Bat Demons were compared to the Marauders' bat mounts, not only would it be stronger, its intelligence would not be lower. It should have the intelligence of a six-seven year old child, so if they could be tamed, they would be able to understand a few orders.

Chu Tian already had these goals when he came here.

Not to mention that Chu Tian had several beast taming techniques, now that he had the little fox and the Demonic God Religion's priests, these monsters that could cause people headaches were quite easy to tame!

This was not a problem.

This was a large wealth!

The Green Religion priests used a secret technique to block the spiritual attack. Clark forcefully raised his staff and vines began to stretch out, instantly catching a Bat Demon in flight. This Bat Demon let out a pitiful cry as all of its vitality and moisture was drained, finally falling on the cavern floor as a dry corpse.

They did not have time to kill more Bat Demons.

The left side wall suddenly broke apart as several beams of light as thick as arms shot at them from the wall.

A Green Religion Priest used a talisman to release a light shield. The beams of light hit the light shield and it shattered to pieces, but it still resisted the attack.

Delores had just recovered.

What happened now?

Delores found that in the dark cavern, there were many beams of lights being fired from all directions. There were weak and strong beams, but there were a lot of them, making people unable to open their eyes any longer.

"Evil Eyes, damn there are so many of them!"

Evil Eyes has excellent dark vision and they could see even further than hawks. Their eyes could penetrate through illusions and camouflage, as well as being able to release radioactive rays, being able to see a person clearly even if they were behind a wall. The Evil Eye's mouth could not make any sounds, so they used their minds to communicate with each other. Although their intelligence was not high, there was an understanding between them.

So many Evil Eyes attacking at once.

This power was enough to kill one-two True Spirit Realm experts.

Clark raised the staff in his hand high up and an emerald green barrier came around them. The Evil Eyes' light beams hit the barrier and they were all absorbed by the barrier, becoming like ripples on the water.

"Great Forest God, please release your great strength!"

Clark released a dazzling green light.

The next second.

Clark's body almost exploded.

His body disappeared and turned into green leaves. These green leaves were like countless butterflies, flying out in all directions, just like a tidal wave surging forward, blocking out their vision. These leaves looked very delicate, but they were as sharp as divine weapons, just a single slash was enough to kill a Bat Demon. Those weak Evil Eyes collapsed with a single blow and when a leaf passed by them, they were cut into pieces.

Delores said with a gasp, "This Clark isn't weaker than the Shaman's Mars!"

The leaves gathered together to reform Clark's short form.

However, there was not a single complete monster around them. They had all been cut and turned into meat paste.

Chu Tian wanted to give a few words of praise, but he felt a strange energy wave. There was an Evil Eye that was slashed in half which slowly came together, finally standing up as a whole. That large head was turning left and right, as if it didn't understand what had just happened. When it saw its struggling companions on the ground, there was a faint blue light released from its eye.

Shua!

Starlight fell onto its dying companion and an incredible matter happened. The Evil Eye slashed into pieces suddenly began to reform before standing up using its tentacles.

Clark knit his brows. He picked up a leaf and prepared to cut the strange Evil Eye.

"Wait, this is a bit interesting." Chu Tian stopped Clark from killing the Evil Eye, "The Evil Eyes depend on energy for food. If an Evil Eye ate fire crystals for a few days, the light from its eye would become fire attributed. If it ate thunder crystals recently, the light would become thunder attributed. This Evil Eye has a strange energy, which means there should be a special mineral where it lives. We shouldn't finish them off first and go look for that place, perhaps we can find something useful."

Chu Tian actually could already recognize it.

The Evil Eye was releasing a star energy beam and star energy had restorative abilities, so it could heal its companies. This Evil Eye had most likely eaten a special ore and this ore was very helpful to Chu Tian. Chu Tian decided to try his luck and perhaps he would reap an unexpected benefit.

Chapter 422: Starlight Mine

The burning sword qi swept the ground.

Those dying Evil Eyes were all turned to ashes.

The final Evil Eye's large head turned around. It felt a strong sense of danger and its instincts told it to drill off in a direction.

"Follow it, follow it!"

The underground world was very complex and even the gnomes did not know everything about it. Although this place wasn't far from the entrance to the Devil's Maw, Clark and the others did not know what was hidden here.

After around forty minutes, the Evil Eye went into another cavern.

It should be this place.

Chu Tian had not passed the entrance when he could feel the very pure star energy. When he went through the entrance, there was a large basin in front of him that was filled with meteor grass and other plants.

These were at least level three meteor grass.

This quality did not just need to be bred for tens of thousands years, it also required a suitable environment to grow in.

Chu Tian used his sword to kill the guiding Evil Eye and impatiently began to search the area.

"This place is..."

The other people entering this place were slightly stunned. This place did not seem like it was naturally formed and it seemed like they had entered the ancient era. It was like a large energy exploded here and on the stones and ground, there were materials releasing starlight that could be seen.

"Star Iron!" Chu Tian found an iron ore covered in starlight, "This is highly pure Star Iron! This thing is the most suitable item whether it is source energy arrays or high altitude airships! I never thought there would be this much here! If my guesses aren't wrong, this place must have been hit by a meteor."

There was also Star Silver and Star Gold which were all priceless high quality items!

"Ha, ha, ha, we're rich this time!" Chu Tian found several crystals and found that in this basin, there were actually glowing crystals, "Star Crystals, this place is filled with Star Crystals!"

Delores and gnomes looked at him with a strange gaze.

Of course they didn't understand the value of these things. The Star Crystals were crystallized stars, which could also be called Starlight Stones. Chu Tian had obtained a few from the Central State Trial Tower and those few pieces had allowed everyone to break through with their Starlight Immortal Bodies.

There were now Starlight Stones all around, perhaps it couldn't be calculated with pieces anymore, it might need to be counted by mountains. This was basically a Starlight Mine!

The Starlight Metals were precious and the Star Crystals were even more valuable.

Perhaps it was enough to allow thousands or even ten thousand people practice the Starlight Immortal Body, moreover, it would be enough for them to reach the Diamond Body Realm. The Starlight Immortal Body was a cultivation technique without attributes and star energy was a rare neutral energy, so even a person of a religion like Delores could practice it. Therefore, there was a large value in discovering this mine.

With this many Star Crystals, how many peak experts could be trained?

The Central State meteor grass also came from a meteor, but the starlight essence in the basin was very small and most of it had basically evaporated when it collided with earth. Just the residue energy was used to grow the meteor grass.

This starlight pit was completely different!

This meteor had formed large amounts of Star Crystals to form a mine!

"Since there are this many Star Crystals, perhaps there is that thing!" Chu Tian's expression changed, suddenly become somewhat excited, "Quickly search, perhaps there is a top grade treasure here. Once this thing is dug out, I can guarantee that not only will we become rich, Green City will have a large weapon in just two-three years. It will be enough to make us one of the most influential cities in the Forest of Chaos."

"How could there be something like that?" Delores had a look of disbelief, "Could it be a divine weapon?"

"What does a divine weapon count for. Even if we obtained a divine weapon, can we even use it?" Chu Tian had a rare impatience, "This meaning of this thing for us right now, perhaps even ten divine weapons can't compare to it! Stop wasting words, quickly search!"

What treasure had such a high value? Even ten divine weapons couldn't compare to it?

Clark gave a soft cough, "You still have to tell us what that thing looks like."

Chu Tian did not have time to explain before an explosion came from the ground. The stone floor was cracked by some power and a strong wave of energy soared out, quickly condensing together.

Delores called out in a surprised voice, "What kind of monster is that!"

That life form that broke out of the rock was a two meters tall giant and its body was covered with a strong electric glow. It was completely naked and had a strong body, but it had no facial features. This was not an actual living thing, but a spiritual life form made of energy.

"Star Elemental!" Chu Tian slightly knit his brows, "Be careful, this fellow is hard to deal with."

Delores took out a bottle and used the Demonic God Religion's summoning technique. With an explosive roar, a six armed ape was summoned. It had the same invisible energy form as before and it ran at the Star Elemental under Delores' control.

The six hands of the ape turned into shadows that wildly slammed against the Star Element. However, a stunning scene occurred as the one broken by the fists was not the Star Elemental, but rather the six armed ape's fists.

It was like a water drop hitting iron.

The instant the six armed ape attacked the Star Elemental, its six arms were shattered.

That reflected strength turned into a wild air current, instantly filling up the entire space.

The Star Elemental silently moved forward, casually sending a palm out. The six armed ape did not even have a chance to struggle as its body was like water meeting high temperatures, instantly being evaporated, leaving no trace behind.

Delores had a very ugly expression, "This is bad, its destructive might is at least in the 4th True Spirit Layer or it could even be higher. We'll be finished if we're hit by it!"

Clark led the Green Religion priests to make their move.

Countless vines wrapped the Star Elemental like a dumpling, but this attack had no effect at all. The Star Elemental just shook its body and those vines that could even entangle a mammoth turned to fragments as it scattered in all directions.

Clark already knew that this was bad.

This monsters strength was even higher than they had imagined.

The Star Elemental raised its arm and instantly a storm of energy gathered in its palm. Clark raised his palm and summoned out a barrier, one that was completely covered in vines.

"Quickly run!"

Run where?

The Star Elemental swept out its arm and a ten meter long giant starlight blade instantly swept out, shattering Clark's defenses. The terrifying force sent everyone flying out like pieces of paper, causing everyone to be damaged to some extent.

The Star Elemental turned into a beam of light and flickering a few times, it directly charged at Clark. It did not have any intelligence, but it did have instincts and it knew that among these people, Clark had the highest cultivation, so it should attack him first.

"This is bad!"

Clark's cultivation was not low, but it wasn't enough to deal with this fellow.

The Star Elemental used its energy to form a barrier which couldn't be broken even with their full strength. The Star Elemental also had a terrifying destructive power, it was not something they could resist.

Hong!

The Star Elemental sent out a palm.

Clark raised his wooden staff with both staff to resist and the terrifying energy formed a shockwave that spread all around them. The surrounding ground began to crack like an earthquake was happening, as well as several large rocks falling down.

Ka, ka!

Clark could clearly feel cracks forming in the staff in his hand. He already almost couldn't hold on, but the Star Elemental's power was becoming stronger and stronger.

"Great Elder!"

Several Green Religion priests quickly tried to help as several large logs came out of the ground. Each large log was covered in runes as it quickly surrounded the Star Elemental, causing a strong sealing power to suppress the Star Elemental. Since directly attacking it would create a backlash, they would use the sealing power to weaken it.

But that still didn't have any effect.

The logs filled with sealing energy were ignited and turned into black charcoal. With this trend, the Green Religion priests would not be able to hold on much longer.

There was no other choice.

If he didn't make a move, these fellows would die.

Chu Tian released a powerful aura as a nine eyed demonic god appeared in the air. When Chu Tian raised the sword in his hand, the Nine Eyed Demon God raised a black Demon God's Sword.

"This is..."

Delores was completely shocked by this power.

She finally realized that Chu Tian had deeply hidden his powers.

This power was so powerful that although he was only in the Awakened Soul Realm, he could instantly kill a True Spirit Realm expert if he used all his strength.

"Die!"

Chu Tian stabbed at the Star Elemental.

The Star Elemental was facing Clark while also facing the seal of the Green Religion priests. When Chu Tian's full force stab entered the Star Elemental's body, this attack should have had no effect on an elemental life form, but Chu Tian had already used his source spirit, so the Demon God's Sword stabbed the Star Elemental when Chu Tian stabbed out.

The Star Elemental did not have a mouth, so it could not make a sound.

But each person could clearly feel a painful yell reverberating through their minds. It was like a giant clap of thunder that made each person's mind feel dizzy.

The Star Elemental's body quickly twisted.

Just like gas meeting an exhaust fan, the Star Elemental turned into starlight as it was completely sucked into Chu Tian's body. It filled every meridian, muscle, and bone of Chu Tian's body in an instant. That wave of star energy filled Chu Tian to the point of exploding.

Clark and Delores were both shocked.

They had a strange feeling. Chu Tian instantly turned into a black hole and unexpectedly swallowed the entire Star Elemental.

Swallowing effect?

No, this strange ability was just one of Chu Tian's abilities. They could also feel different auras coming from Chu Tian, like soul energy, spirit energy, space energy, and time energy…..

These people were all True Spirit experts.

But they were all suppressed at this moment.

How was this possible?

Chu Tian swallowed the Star Elemental and he immediately fell to the ground. Every pore of his body shined with starlight and he used his sword to support his body. There was blood coming from his nose and eyes, which was the backlash of using his source spirit.

Everyone did not have a time to let out a sigh of relief.

Suddenly sounds of explosions came from the distance.

Clark's eyes almost popped out, "There are still many Star Elementals!"

Delores also saw it. There wasn't just a single Star Elemental, there seemed to be many Star Elementals. There were several large ones among them whose auras were several times that of the one they just encountered.

"Quickly run!"

Clark did not even think as he used a vine to grab Chu Tian, quickly wanting to run.

"Wait a minute!" Chu Tian pointed at where the Star Elemental had been defeated. From the gradually fading light, there was a strange gem that flew out, "We must take that Eye of the Star!"

Delores rushed over to grab the gem before they quickly escaped the area.

It was lucky that the Star Elementals were not interested in chasing, otherwise with their speed, they shouldn't think of being able to escape.

Chapter 423: Eye of the Star

They could be considered lucky this time.

The Star Elementals wouldn't do anything, they only attacked the invaders that came into their territory. When the invaders left, they would not pursue, so they could escape this underground space alive.

Chu Tian did not have time to explain, his body was filled with a tidal wave of star energy. If he couldn't quickly refine this energy, perhaps his body might explode at any moment.

So when they returned to the surface, Chu Tian quickly found a secluded valley in Green City to cultivate. He sat cross legged on a large stone as his body was surrounded by star energy, looking like it could explode at any moment.

This situation was very dangerous, but it was also a very beneficial opportunity.

The star energy had been refined by the Star Elemental for countless years, so directly swallowing this energy was not inferior to taking in a ton of Star Crystals. Once this energy was refined, it would certainly raise Chu Tian's «Starlight Immortal Body» by another level!

Because he cultivated the «Starlight Immortal Body», Chu Tian's body had been tempered by star energy for a long time, so he had a very high tolerance for star energy. Otherwise, if this crude power entered his body, even if his body didn't explode directly, he would become half crippled for being seriously injured.

It's beginning!

Chu Tian began to rotate his cultivation technique.

The star energy stopped attacking his body and was evenly spread across his body. It seeped into his muscles and bones inch by inch, as if it was being integrated into his body.

It was refined again and again.

Chu Tian could clearly feel that his body was being strengthened at an extreme speed. With the refinement of the star energy, his muscles were filled with vitality and various aspects were increased by over ten times. Finally, his cultivation technique took the elemental energy within his body and refined it into the Starlight Immortal Body.

These effects would naturally have immediate effects!

Chu Tian could clearly feel his body quickly being strengthened by his cultivation technique!

The starlight around Chu Tian gradually was no longer like a gloss made of diamonds, rather he began to glow from his body to the tips of his hair, making him look like a person made of light. He was even a bit dazzling. The stone he was sitting on suffered the pressure of the immense power and cracks began to form on it, as if it was being ground down into powder.

Chu Tian understood.

He had already succeeded.

This was the Large Success Realm known as the Sacred Light Body!

The «Starlight Immortal Body» had four realms respectively, the Glass Body Realm, the Diamond Body Realm, the Sacred Light Realm, and the Immortal Body Realm. The Glass Body Realm was the Small Success Realm, the Diamond Body Realm was the Obscure Realm, the Sacred Light Body Realm was the Large Success Realm, and the Immortal Body Realm was the Perfection Realm, meaning the cultivation technique has been fully cultivated.

Comparing the Diamond Body to the Glass Body, not only was it a large increase in terms of defense, the reflective might was also significantly increased.

When comparing the Sacred Light Body to the Diamond Body, not only was it another increase in terms of defense, the Sacred Light Body's strongest effect was its self recovery effect. Now that Chu Tian's internal organs were heavily injured, as long as he activated the Sacred Light Body with his spirit energy, those injuries could be quickly healed.

Moreover, the Sacred Light Body increased defenses against curses, corrosion, demonification, and other strange attacks. Chu Tian's defense and battle strength had undergone a large increase.

In other words.

When the «Starlight Immortal Body» was cultivated to the Large Success Sacred Light Body, it was no longer a simple defensive cultivation technique, but also a cultivation technique with a powerful healing effect. Even if one received a fatal wound, one would be able to heal it.

However, the largest pleasant surprise was not just his cultivation technique increase.

With the increase of his cultivation technique this time, Chu Tian could feel his cultivation bottleneck weakening. This also meant that he was close to the turning point and he could make an attack on the True Spirit Realm!

How could he let this good opportunity pass by?

Chu Tian quickly condensed the vital energy within him and began to attack the higher realm. Chu Tian had lived another life and had experienced this before, so naturally he was familiar with this. It was like easily lifting a heavy weight as he smoothly attacked his bottleneck.

Three days later.

There was an earth shaking bang coming from the valley.

The spiritual energy from the surrounding dozen miles were all condensed and it was like an incomparably large mouth had swallowed all the spiritual energy before everything returned to calmness once again.

Chu Tian slowly opened his eyes and they were glowing, but they were also as sharp as a falcon's. He let out a long sigh and like a slash or a sudden bolt of lightning, he instantly smashed the giant rock in front of him.

He had succeeded!

The True Spirit Realm!

True Spirit Cultivators were completely different from Awakened Soul Cultivators. Awakened Soul Cultivators only began using their source spirits and True Spirit Cultivators transformed the spirit energy inside their body into true spirit energy. When they reached the True Spirit Realm, each layer would bring a significant increase in power.

Chu Tian had surpassed an entire realm, but there was no earthshaking phenomenon.

This was different from the past.

It had to be known, around a year ago, when he broke through to the Awakened Soul Realm in the Yin Corpse Canyon, it had caused the entire world to tremble. The following cultivation breakthroughs he had had caused shocking phenomenons.

This time was clearly a large realm increase, but it was no different from a normal cultivator. Why was it like this?

This was the benefit that came with reaching the True Spirit Realm, Chu Tian was completely different from before. The current him could control his strength and restrain his aura from leaking out, naturally suppressing the phenomenon.

The Awakened Soul Realm was separated into the Void Soul, Illustrious Soul, and True Soul stages.

The True Spirit Realm was also separated into three stages. The first to third layers were the Earth Spirit Realm, the fourth to sixth layers were the Heaven Spirit Realm, and the seventh to ninth layers were the Spirit Transformation Realm.

Chu Tian was in the 1st True Spirit Layer, the Earth Spirit Realm, but having the Perfection Realm «Netherworld Flame Sword» and the Large Success Realm «Starlight Immortal Body», his strength was clearly above that of normal cultivators. However, to think that he only had these trump cards was a large mistake.

The True Spirit Realm could be considered a divide!

After Chu Tian reached the True Spirit Realm, the abilities he found hard to use before could be used now. For example, his spatial abilities. The starting point of forming spatial energy was in the True Spirit Realm and in terms of source energy array, the lowest spatial source energy array was a level three array.

This was also the reason why Chu Tian wanted to recruit Vivian. It was because Chu Tian could not develop the Space Warehouse while he was in the Awakened Soul Realm.

Now it was fine.

From this day forth, he would open a new world!

Chu Tian could feel that there was still a bit of the swallowed Star Elemental inside him that hadn't been refined yet.

This remaining thing was not energy, but rather it was an innately formed cultivation technique. Chu Tian had named it the «Starlight Art». This was a cultivation technique combined from different movement techniques and body techniques, it would work together with the Starlight Immortal Body since they came from the same source.

This would make up for the «Starlight Immortal Body's» lack of speed and attack power. Although it wasn't very useful for Chu Tian in the future, he could give it to Yingying and the young miss, allowing them to increase their battle strength. Even the young miss who had a source spirit without any potential for fighting, she could also have a decent battle strength.

"There was a lot harvested this time."

Chu Tian took out a thing from his chest.

This was a stone like the Star Crystal, but it was different from normal Star Crystals. There seemed to be an eye design inside this Star Crystal that was releasing an ancient and mysterious aura.

Eye of the Star!

A very precious item!

It was the core of the giant meteorite!

These Star Elementals' core was this Eye of the Star. Chu Tian could even use this Eye of the Star in his hand to create another Star Elemental. If Chu Tian were to swallow this Eye of the Star right now, his «Starlight Immortal Body» had the possibility of increasing by another large increment!

This sounded very attractive, but Chu Tian would not do this.

Chu Tian understood that this precious material had an even more important use, which was to lock onto spatial coordinates. It could be used as a Space Door's core.

This Eye of the Star was not big, so it wasn't enough to form a large Space Door, but it was enough to create a Spatial Transfer Array.

The Spatial Transfer Array and the Space Warehouse were two completely different things.

The Space Warehouse was only a locked space which could be used to transfer items, but the space could not be used to transfer living beings. The Spatial Transfer Array was not the say, it was an array that could transfer living beings. In other words, Chu Tian could create a Spatial Transfer Array in Green City and then he could create another Spatial Transfer Array anywhere else on the continent, then he could lock their coordinates with the Eye of the Star, allowing both sides to transfer things to the other side.

This was the value of the Eye of the Star!

In the underground space, there seemed to be more than one Eye of the Star!

If he could obtain large amounts of the Eye of the Star, Chu Tian could create transfer points all over the continent, making it easier to send people and transport things in the future. This would have an inestimable effect on Green City's development.

Chu Tian put away the Eye of the Star.

The Eye of the Star was the core of the transfer array, but just having the Eye of the Star was not enough, he still needed to find some precious Spatial Crystals. These Spatial Crystals were not as precious as the Eye of the Star, but as rare materials with a space attribute, it wasn't that easy to find them. However, there was a few stored in the gnomes' research lab, so Chu Tian could borrow a bit first.

When Chu Tian came out of the valley.

Delores came forward to greet her, "You're out this fast?"

Chu Tian shrugged his shoulders, "Of course, why not think about who I am! Yi, where did Clark and the others go?"

"A plague suddenly broke out a few days ago that infected most of the gnomes in Green City, so they went to investigate."

"A plague?"

"You don't know yet? Actually there has been a plague in the forest for a long time, but it was confined to the southern forest. It has recently been spread to Green City."

"Come, we're going to take a look."

There was a bit wrong with Green City.

The entire city was covered in an indescribable strange feeling.

Before Chu Tian came to Green City, there was already a plague in the southern forest. Several local tribes had already been annihilated by it and large parts of the forest was covered in plague.

Now without knowing why, the plague had spread to Green City. It had infected thirty-forty thousand people in just a few days, so the situation was very dangerous.

There might really be something afoot.

Chu Tian had eliminated the tax to keep the merchants, but now it seemed like most of them were about to leave again.

Delores said, "Sir Clark suspects that it was done by the Undead Religion and he should have taken people over to ask for an explanation, but Clark doesn't have any evidence. Even if he did have evidence, he wouldn't have a way of dealing with those Necromancers."

Chapter 424: Necromancers

The Undead Religion believed in the Death God and the Nether God, this was a truly mysterious religion. The ancient sect of the Ten Thousand Corpse Ancient Tomb had some similarities to the Undead Religion, but the only difference was whether there was belief or not.

No matter what.

People generally stayed away from cultivators that dealt with Yin Corpses and souls. When Green City was prosperous, a Lich had brought a group of Necromancers to Green City. They had summoned over ten thousand Yin Corpses which were perfect hard labourers that never tired or got bored, performing a merit by helping the gnomes dig out the mountain.

It was because of this the gnomes allowed the Undead Religion's temple, helping them develop their forces. Who would have thought that over the years, the Undead Religion would become stronger and stronger, even coming close to threatening the gnomes. Especially with the eruption of the plague, this was clearly done by the Undead Religion.

Clark had the gnomes completely surround the Undead Religions' temple.

The Undead Religion temple was a grey arch shaped castle and there were many gargoyle shaped statues squatting all over the building. They seemed like decorations, but they were actually dangerous undead monsters.

The ones completely surrounding the castle were Green Protectors.

There were several thousand gnome elites at the entrance of the Undead Religion temple, glaring at the Necromancers. Both sides were very tense, as if they could break out in a fight at any moment.

Clark's face was filled with rage, "Samuel, do you have to become enemies with Green City?"

"Hei, hei, hei." The Necromancer priest leader gave a cold laugh, "Clark, Green City no longer belongs to the gnomes, you are very clear on this. Even if we become enemies with Green City, what does it matter to you? Have that turtle City Lord come out, I really want to see what kind of person he is. He actually had you traitorous gnomes who gave away the city bow down to him."

This person's words were filled with hostility.

Chu Tian's brows jumped up and he revealed a dissatisfied expression. Delores whispered in a serious voice in his hear, "Samuel, an important priest for the Undead Religion. His strength isn't bad, he's around the 3rd True Spirit Layer. He should be in the top five of the Necromancer priests here."

"Then why isn't he a Lich?"

Samuel was not a Lich, he was a living person. However, his body was covered in bandages and he was wearing a large cloak, so people couldn't see his appearance and couldn't tell what race he was.

"Do you think that every Necromancer is a Lich?" Delores rolled her eyes at him, "The Lich transformation is one of the highest level ceremonies for the Undead Religion, only the most outstanding and strongest people have that qualification. Moreover, even if a person was qualified, their physiques might not be suited for being turned into a Lich. In the entire Green City Undead Religion, there is only the founder who is a Lich. It's said that it is an old monster that has lived for two thousand years, being even older than the old elves in the Eternal Forest!"

"A low level existence like the Lich is this respected?" Chu Tian disdainfully curled his lips, "Your thoughts are truly hard to understand."

"Hey, hey, what kind of words are these? Who doesn't envy the Lich!" Delores retorted, "Liches will never die, living forever is many people's dreams. Do you know how many rulers and emperors on the continent wish they could become an undying Lich? I don't believe that you also don't want to live forever."

Liches were a mysterious being in the hearts of people, this kind of undead monster was formed when a living being transformed through a ceremony. Liches in theory were existences that could live forever.

"Your views are all wrong." Chu Tian softly said, "Don't think that being a Lich is all that great. You can't breath, you don't have a heartbeat, you don't have senses, you don't need food, and you can't replicate. You lose all the pleasures of living to gain a body that never ages, what is the meaning behind that?"

One couldn't appreciate good food, beautiful women, and couldn't enjoy the joys between men and women. One wouldn't be able to appreciate the beauties of the world, it was better to just die cleanly.

"You can't deny the advantages of being a Lich."

"The Lich is close to not aging and not dying, but it is only close and not truly undying."

"What? Could the Lich still die?"

"Liches do have limitless life in theory and even some of the stronger Liches remove their souls to form Phylacteries. That way, even if their bodies are destroyed, they could be reborn using their Phylactery. However, Liches are not eternal. Liches can avoid the aging and destruction of the physical body, but they cannot escape the aging of the soul."

In this world, there were many biological and non biological beings that could be considered undying, for example, the Flower Fairies Chu Tian met before. These beings did not have an upper limit in terms of life span, but actually the Flower Fairies were weaker than most beings. They greatly relied on their environment and once that was destroyed, the Flower Fairies would find it hard to live long.

A living being's body, mind, and soul all depended on each other. The material determined the will and the will determined the soul. Without the support of the material, the will will gradually fade before one loses their human nature, even losing their self awareness. The soul will also decline during this process.

Once a life form became a Lich, they would need secret techniques to simulate all forms of emotions, but that cannot be maintained forever. Most Liches that live for one-two thousand years will become numb to emotions and they will become more and more cold. They will lost their human nature and consciousness and their mind will fade before they turn into an undead.

Chu Tian knew how the Liches transformed, but he was not interested in this monster at all.

These words attracted everyone's attention, even the Undead Religion temple's people looked over.

"Acting City Lord!"

"The acting City Lord is here!"

The gnomes talked to one another and looked at this human youth with strange eyes, most of them were filled with doubts and disbelief. To let a human become the City Lord, this was a hard to accept matter for the gnomes. Recently the plague has caused trouble in Green City and this acting City Lord did not reveal himself, which was a bit unforgivable.

"I was wondering who it was that dared to disrespect the great Lord Lich." Samuel looked at Chu Tian with eyes filled with ridicule and anger, "Do the gnomes really have no other paths? Such a useless waste of a human is the City Lord? The destruction of this city is not strange at all."

Delores immediately asked, "Then you're admitting everything was done by the Necromancers?"

"You still don't understand? This is not important nor is it the main point." Samuel's eyes were filled with taunting, "Those tens of thousands of gnomes affected by the plague will not live more than two days, that is the main point."

"You're going too far!"

The gnomes were filled with rage.

This matter was certainly done by the Necromancers.

Samuel had a reason why he was acting so rampant. That damn Lich hasn't show itself yet, so what use was it if they killed these Necromancer priests in front of them? The gnomes could not explain the situation in front of them, not to mention the tens of thousands of clansmen being infected with the plague. These tens of thousands of people were hostages in their hands and the gnomes could not disregard their clansmen, so they had to accept the threats of these despicable Necromancers.

No matter what.

They would save their clansmen first.

Clark couldn't help loudly asking, "What condition do you have! Speak!"

"If the gnome really want to save their clansmen, it's very simple. Resign the City Lord position and let the great Lich rule over Green City, otherwise this little plague is just the beginning."

"In your dreams! Is the Lich worthy of owning Green City?"

"A human waste became your City Lord, yet the noble and knowledgeable Lord Lich isn't worthy? Clark, get it straight, I am not joking with you, think about the tens of thousands of your clansmen struggling in pain. I promise that other than us Necromancers, no one else can save them." Samuel pointed at Chu Tian, "Of course, you still have another choice which is to kill this human and send his head back to the Eternal Forest, relying on the Dragon's Ridge, swearing loyalty to them. That way, you gnomes will still be the rulers of this city. The Undead Religion will not only not be your Green Religions enemies, we will be your strongest allies."

It was impossible to let the Lich become the City Lord.

It wasn't that this Necromancer priest didn't know this. Samuel deliberately gave this request to prepare for his second request.

Kill Chu Tian.

Break off relations with the Eternal Forest.

This was what the Dragon's Ridge hoped for.

Tens of thousands of gnome lives were being held in the Necromancers' hands, this was not a choice that was hard to make. After all, the gnomes did not like humans, so would they give up the lives of their clansmen for a trivial human?

"You should know the temper of those old fogies in the Eternal Forest." Samuel added more oil into the flames, "I can see that the Elven King will not send people to Green City. It is not because he doesn't value Green City, rather he has no choice. The elves do not like causing conflict, so hiring yourselves to the Eternal Forest was a mistake to begin with. What is placed in front of you now is a chance to correct this mistake."

The Netherworld Sword came out with a shua sound.

"I think you've talked too much nonsense." Chu Tian came out raising his sword, "You want father to die this much? Then old master Chu Tian will give you a chance. I'll stand right here, kill me if you have the skills."

Samuel said with a cold laugh, "You're worthy of me making a move?"

Chu Tian laughed, "If it wasn't for you fellows being too hateful, I wouldn't want to dirty my sword!"

Samuel was filled with rage as he raised his finger that was like dead wood. He began to chant as a strong corpse scent appeared around them, while a dark green fireball appeared at the tip of his finger.

"Overconfident human, I'll let you see the power of the Smouldering Corpse Flame!"

This green fireball with a strong corpse sent slammed down at Chu Tian's feet, causing that revolting stench to spread in all directions, making people unable to not move away.

The green flames soared into the sky.

Chu Tian did not make a move as he was instantly swallowed by the flames.

Delores was shocked. It can't be, this fellow really couldn't block it?

The gnomes were also shocked. Although they knew that this acting City Lord was not strong, they didn't know that he would be this weak. He didn't even have the ability to resist this?

Samuel said with a cold smile, "Truly a joke."

Who would have thought that a figure would walk out of the sea of flames at this time. When the raging flames swallowed him, no one felt any energy fluctuations around Chu Tian, but the strange thing was that even though the flames spread all over him, he was not injured at all. Not a single hair, not a single corner was injured.

"What is this?"

Everyone revealed looks of shock.

Some people found a strange thing. Chu Tian's dark eyes had turned white at this moment and the aura around him had completely disappeared.

It looked like he was just standing there.

But people could not feel his existence.

The high level personnel of Miracle Commerce would certainly recognize this. This was the spatial cultivation technique, «Void Escaping» Chu Tian had taught to Vivian which Chu Tian was currently using himself!

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