After fighting desperately, Dick was on the verge of collapse, but fortunately, the warriors of the Yaoguang family managed to free themselves and come to his aid.
The chaotic battle raged for nearly half an hour, and Dick barely sustained himself through a sliver of magic power, surviving until the end of the fight.
The Seven Star Castle coalition had emerged victorious—at least, they suffered far fewer casualties than the warriors of Hongfan Domain.
Damn it! What was the point of such a chaotic skirmish? Dick’s greatest gain from the battle was looting two spatial pouches from the corpses of the fallen Hongfan warriors he had slain. Well, at least he was still alive, with some spoils of war to show for it.
“Barbara, thanks a lot!” If it hadn't been for this female warrior of the same clan, Dick might not have made it through the battle alive.
“You’re quite strong yourself, otherwise, you wouldn’t have received such a large share of the spoils.” Barbara, a fifth-level warrior, had faced even tougher opponents than Dick. The fact that she was able to kill a fifth-level warrior from Hongfan Domain spoke volumes. The bloodline warriors of the Yaoguang family were far from ordinary.
“Sigh! It still comes down to my lack of cultivation.” Though Dick wasn’t gravely injured, no battle was fought without wounds.
“Dick, don’t worry. This kind of chaotic war will likely end soon. Intermediate bloodline warriors are the future of Seven Star Castle, and they are also the foundation of Hongfan Domain. Even they can’t afford such losses,” Barbara reassured him.
“Oh? You have inside information?” Dick hadn’t heard anything like this from Mentor Mengqing.
“At the very least, this might be the last battle for our Yaoguang Mountain bloodline warriors. Since bloodline warriors are so rare, Seven Star Castle will start using ordinary warriors to fight. Our Yaoguang family may not have many, but other families do. This was something the Grand Elder of our family secured for us.”
That made sense. The Yaoguang family had just over a hundred intermediate bloodline warriors. If they kept fighting in such chaotic battles, it wouldn’t take long before they were wiped out.
Even so, the Yaoguang family had a substantial number of ordinary warriors. As for the bloodline warriors of Yaoguang Mountain, participating in a few battles would suffice to show their loyalty.
After the battle, when the casualties were tallied, the Yaoguang family had lost seven out of the twenty-one bloodline warriors who had participated—a substantial percentage.
And this wasn’t even the first batch of bloodline warriors the Yaoguang family had sent out. Dick knew they had already dispatched two groups before. He began to wonder how many bloodline intermediate warriors were even left in Yaoguang Mountain.
“Adolf, good job! You took down two fifth-level warriors from Hongfan Domain this time, right? The rewards must be generous,” came a voice from nearby, drawing Dick’s attention. Adolf from the Kaiyang family had also been part of the battle.
Their gazes met, and Dick could see the venomous hatred in Adolf’s eyes. It was clear that this second brother despised him.
Killing two warriors of the same rank was indeed impressive. Dick’s achievements amounted to two fourth-level warriors, which wasn’t bad, especially considering that in such chaotic battles, not every kill was a one-on-one duel. For example, Dick had managed to kill one warrior in a one-on-one fight, while the second victory was the result of a combined effort in the melee.
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Family military accomplishments were calculated scientifically, taking into account the relative strength of the opponent. Much like Seven Star Castle, powerful bloodline warriors from Hongfan Domain were not above killing ordinary soldiers. In chaotic skirmishes, whether it was Adolf or Dick, slaying two warriors of the same rank didn’t necessarily indicate their full abilities.
Dick glanced at Adolf indifferently before looking away.
“Barbara, do you have any connections to help me acquire a fourth-level magic crystal core?” Though Dick had magic gold for his magic training, he still needed crystal cores, which related to the peculiarities of his jade pendant space. Once in Seaside Town, Dick had accidentally exchanged magic gold for a fourth-level crystal core, and upon placing it into the pendant’s space, something extraordinary happened.
The jade pendant space not only stimulated his spiritual power to enhance his magical cultivation, but it also allowed him to absorb part of the energy from the fourth-level crystal core, comparable to the energy of consuming two or three crystal cores through a magic array. Moreover, the magic energy processed by the pendant was purer than what could be extracted using an array.
As for why placing magic gold into the pendant space produced no effect, Dick theorized that magic crystal cores came from magical beasts—living beings whose energy was more refined, whereas magic gold, though precious, was merely a refined mineral, not a living essence.
Regardless, this discovery held immense significance for Dick’s magical cultivation. The slow pace of magical training was largely due to the impurities present when absorbing magic energy through arrays, which made frequent use of magic gold inefficient for magic users.
Now that the pendant space dramatically increased the purity of magic energy drawn from crystal cores, it felt like an invaluable cheat. With this, his magical cultivation might no longer lag behind his warrior training.
However, only fourth-level and higher crystal cores were useful for the pendant space. Although Yaoguang Mountain bloodline warriors occasionally had access to fourth-level magical beast flesh, higher-level crystal cores had never been offered. They were far too valuable, especially the intermediate-level cores.
Since there was access to fourth-level magical beast flesh, surely the Yaoguang family had ways to hunt intermediate magical beasts.
Dick had once asked Mentor Mengqing, but even he didn’t have a solution.
“Ordinary family points won’t get you what you want. Dick, didn’t you ask Mentor Mengqing about this, and he said he couldn’t help?”
“Yes, Barbara. I figured you might know a way, so I thought I’d ask.”
“Don’t try to flatter me, but I do know something. The family’s magical beast flesh is indeed acquired by intermediate warriors, who then sell it to the family for points. But as for the crystal cores, they’re too precious, especially here in the Yaoguang family.
Magic crystal cores are most valuable when traded directly to mages. To get a fourth-level crystal core, with your current abilities, it’s not impossible. How about this: I’ll take you to a trading fair sometime.”
“A trading fair? In Seven Star Castle?”
“Yes. Even the mages of Seven Star Castle need to go there for crystal cores. You’ll never find intermediate-level cores in Seaside Town. To exchange for them, you’ll need something valuable to warriors—it won’t be as simple as gold.”
Barter! Now Dick understood.
While magic gold was available in Seaside Town, crystal cores were not, indicating that intermediate-level cores were more valuable than magic gold. Resources for warriors were already scarce, though Seven Star Castle had discovered a substance known as “vital energy stones” that was beneficial for warrior cultivation. Unfortunately, these stones were rare and just as valuable.
During the trial period, Dick had only been allotted ten vital energy stones. The magic array in his cave wasn’t even used for magic training; instead, it was filled with vital energy stones to help him cultivate his warrior skills. Technically, magic arrays for warrior cultivation were called vital energy arrays or fighting energy arrays.
These specialized arrays allowed warriors to maximize the energy within vital energy stones to enhance their combat skills.
As for why they were called vital energy stones rather than fighting energy stones, who knew?