Chapter 259: The Wall of Earth

[Shared Blessing: Aether consumed ×10,000. The Vein’s standard loot-drop bonus has been granted to Lord Nessa Fenwick.]

[Shared Blessing: Aether consumed ×100,000. The Vein’s standard loot-drop bonus has been granted to Lord Darian Frost.]

[Shared Blessing: Aether consumed ×1,000,000.]

The first recipient cost only ten thousand Aether. That was cheap enough.

Each additional recipient, however, cost ten times as much as the one before. The effect lasted only a day.

After Nessa, Darian, and Elara, Cassian paid to bless Seraphine, Lyra, and the mysterious Orion Valcrest as well. Covering all six cost more than a billion Aether for one day.

Few recipients, but an effect far beyond Dragon’s Blessing.

"Sixty-three times the drop rate..." Darian groaned.

The final Fortune aggregation had taken Riftward Region past three thousand Fortune. The Vein’s loot bonus had risen to more than sixtyfold.

Even Lyra, the weakest of the six, could now match an ordinary Divine Scion in battle. If she met Neroth again, the outcome would be far from certain.

With the Vein, Dragon’s Blessing, and the richer hunting grounds around Elara working together, those six could gather as much as two thousand Divine Scions.

Scions. Not ordinary Lords.

The others soon worked it out too.

"The top hundred! We really have a chance!"

"At the very least, we can beat the Second Legion."

"Imagine the Council’s faces!"

"Will the Provinces that chose the Second Legion regret it?"

"I don’t know about them. But our twelve supporting Provinces are going to be very glad they stood with us."

Elara forced herself to calm down.

"Don’t forget the monster sieges. Every ten percent triggers one, and each wave will be stronger. We still have very few people."

"Go gather resources," Darian said confidently. "Leave the Temple’s defenses to me."

Cassian gave him a curious look. He sounded very sure of himself. Was he hiding another card?

——

[You have killed a Fire Elemental Beast — Rare One-Star.]

[Battle Essence +180,000. Aether +6,500. Fire Pearl — Rare ×3. Epic Chest ×1. Rare Chest ×5. Intermediate Physique Book ×1. Rare Troop Sigil ×3...]

Orion stared at the report.

"Three Fire Pearls from one monster?"

And what were all those other items? More than thirty of them from a single kill!

He remembered the golden light that had entered him seconds earlier. He had been busy with this Level-90 minor boss and had not read the notice carefully.

Now he opened it.

For a moment, he could only stare. His long experience let him recover after a second, and his eyes shone.

"Incredible. Cassian really is a great power who chose to be reborn. Did he find a way to bring some precious treasure from his former life?"

Cassian selected a Legendary Domain Evolution Seal from the other items he had won in the Individual Contest and sent it to Orion through the Exchange.

[Lord Cassian Vale has sent you a Legendary Domain Evolution Seal.]

"A Legendary Domain Evolution Seal..."

Orion took a deep breath. Nearly twenty years had passed since his rebirth. All the surprises in those years hardly compared with this single day.

"With a drop rate like that, finding a Legendary Seal is hardly strange."

His thoughts moved to the contest.

They had entered this First Legion almost as a gesture of defiance. Now the top hundred seemed possible. Perhaps even better.

Could little more than a thousand Lords break the Homeworld’s Legion Contest record?

"With Cassian leading us, perhaps we really can overthrow the Jade Court."

His expression firmed.

The top ten, let alone first place, never entered his thoughts.

None of them knew that Cassian’s own gathering power exceeded all six of theirs combined.

The Crystal Maidens located a Level-100 Epic boss eighty kilometers away.

Every Lord had lost access to the Gates upon entering Fivefold Heaven. Ordinarily, they would have had to scout their way across the ground.

Cassian had Liora.

Without waiting for an order, she used Teleport to take Crystal One, another Crystal Maiden, and three Faerie Dragons straight to the target.

Seconds later, kill reports flooded in.

[Your Hero Liora Ashmere has killed an Earth Drake — Uncommon.]

[Battle Essence +13,000. Aether +600. Earth Pearl — Rare ×4. Rare Chest ×5. Rare Troop Soul ×3...]

[Your Hero Liora Ashmere has killed...]

Hundreds of reports. She must have used an area spell.

The Amber’s Innate Auspice raised every drop by one Quality. In moments, Cassian had collected 1,518 Rare Earth Pearls and 110 Epic ones.

Then came the Earth Drake leader.

A Level-100 Epic boss had more than forty thousand combat stars. Against several Level-70, Legendary Nine-Star troops, it was nowhere near enough.

One minute later, another report appeared.

[Your troop Crystal One has killed an Earth Drake Leader — Epic.]

[Battle Essence +1,800,000. Aether +50,000. Earth Pearl — Legendary ×5...]

Five Legendary Earth Pearls. That alone would have stunned the whole Legion.

"This Amber is absurdly powerful," Cassian said. "It works perfectly with the Vein."

Darian chose that moment to post an item record in the First Legion’s Channel.

[Darian Frost: Earth Pearl — Epic. Click to inspect.]

Champions crowded around the record, their admiration entirely sincere.

[Epic Quality!]

[He must have killed a Rare monster!]

[Lord Darian, incredible!]

[Darian Frost: Nothing special.]

Cassian smiled. He really did like showing off.

For a moment, Cassian considered posting a few Legendary Pearls. Instead, he opened the Temple’s construction interface.

"Submit all Elemental Pearls."

The Pearls vanished. The Five Elements Temple began to change.

——

In the eight Governors’ group, the talk was still about Darian.

[What else would you expect from someone with Golden Behemoths? He’s already killed a Rare monster. Those must be at least Level 90.]

[Divine Province has more than Cassian. Darian, Nessa, Elara, Seraphine—any of them is stronger than us.]

[Bellamy, which great figure of House Frost is Darian descended from? Give us a hint.]

[How should I know? And you’d better stop asking.]

Then one of them stammered out another message.

[Look. Look at the Temple!]

The Five Elements Temple was a regular pentagon. Its five walls represented Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth.

The Wall of Earth suddenly blazed with light. Before their eyes, it rose nearly two hundred meters.

[Wall of Earth — Construction Progress: 1.32%.]

[We’ve only been fighting for a few minutes! It’s already past one percent?]

[One Epic Earth Pearl does that much?]

[Quick! Find more high-Quality beasts!]

The supposed effect of Darian’s single Pearl sent everyone’s confidence soaring. They used every means they had to search for stronger Elemental Beasts.

Unfortunately for them, Cassian had already marked every Epic beast around the Temple as a target for his own forces. Letting someone else kill them would waste too much of the potential loot.

"A few Legendary Pearls, more than a hundred Epic ones, over a thousand Rares. All that, just to push one wall past a percent."

Cassian shook his head.

"And they say construction only gets slower as it goes on. No wonder no Legion has ever been heard of completing a World Wonder in this contest."

Liora had already Teleported to the next Epic hunting ground. Aurelia, Celia, Sylvara, and the remaining Dawnwings, Faerie Dragons, and Crystal Maidens were advancing into areas with monsters above Level 100.

"That was a little obvious. Better submit them steadily from now on."

He had no wish to compete with Darian over who could draw more attention.

Darian, meanwhile, was arranging the defenses under Maren’s guidance. He stared in bewilderment at the Earth Pearl still glowing in his hand.

"I haven’t submitted it yet."

Could an Epic Pearl be so powerful that its presence alone made the wall grow?

He carefully submitted it, then watched the Temple in anticipation.𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚