Chapter 493 - 54: Entering the Main Cosmos (2)

Chapter 493: Chapter 54: Entering the Main Cosmos (2)

Li Hua (Private Message): "Sigh... there was a small accident!"

Lin Yu (Private Message): "? What happened? Don’t tell me you didn’t advance?"

Li Hua (Private Message): "...Yeah."

Lin Yu (Private Message): "Huh? How’d that happen? How did you manage to get yourself eliminated?"

Lin Yu (Private Message): "Don’t you have a lot of heroes in your territory? Aren’t you pretty strong?"

Lin Yu (Private Message): "Oh, right, your army is a bit weak..."

Lin Yu (Private Message): "But still, it shouldn’t have been that bad, right? You’ve occupied a decent number of territories, haven’t you?"

Li Hua (Private Message): "Sigh~~ Nothing I could do. The Beastmen went crazy in the last few days, and some of the territories I held were a bit too close to Beastman Territories."

Li Hua (Private Message): "So..."

Li Hua explained, and Lin Yu finally understood why his friend had run into trouble. In the final stretch, he had been attacked by Beastman Lords making desperate, all-or-nothing gambles.

Although Lin Yu’s own territory hadn’t seen any fighting, he knew just how ferocious the Beastman offensive was.

During that time, many Human Race Lords bordering Beastman Territories were begging for help in the chat channels, and Lin Yu had watched quite a few of the videos they posted.

The Beastman attacks were utterly insane. Unless you had a completely overwhelming advantage against them and could withstand their human-wave tactics, your defenses were almost certain to be breached.

Although some Human Race Lords in the central, conflict-free zones offered support, they were in the minority, and they only helped the Lords they personally knew.

It seemed none of the Lords from the Western Plains had gone to support Li Hua.

Of course, it was also possible that no one knew Li Hua was under attack, so they didn’t offer help. After all, Li Hua hadn’t said a word in the [Plains Unified Defense Group] chat. No call for help meant he wasn’t being attacked!!!

In that case, it was understandable that Li Hua had lost some territories.

Lin Yu could also understand Li Hua’s mentality for not asking for help. He was a commoner who had clawed his way up on his own. Without a bit of pride, he wouldn’t have been able to persist in developing his territory alone, aspiring to turn it into an Extraordinary Territory.

Lin Yu (Private Message): "Go ahead and submit the application. I’ll approve it on my end."

Li Hua (Private Message): "Thanks, Brother Lin!"

Lin Yu soon received the allegiance request from Li Hua and promptly approved it.

Li Hua (Private Message): "From now on, you’re my boss! Boss Lin!"

Lin Yu (Private Message): "Any regrets?"

Li Hua (Private Message): "A little..."

Li Hua (Private Message): "The outcome is still pretty good, I guess. At least you and I are on good terms!"

...

Half an hour later, all the eliminated Lords who hadn’t been taken in by anyone were teleported back to Cuiwei Star. Without these Lords begging for help, the chat channels instantly fell silent.

At the same time, the entire continent began to change.

Lin Yu suddenly felt something and switched his perspective to his avatar that was merged with the World Tree.

He looked down upon his entire territory and discovered a spatial barrier had appeared on the border between his land and the adjacent continent to the east, where the Crystal Core Giants resided.

Then, the two continents separated, and the continent of the Crystal Core Giants flew off in another direction.

Although Lin Yu couldn’t see a clear image of the north and west, he could sense that new spatial barriers had appeared there as well.

However, the spatial barriers there were clearly not drawn along the original borderlines.

This was because the territories of the Titan Race Lords to his north, who had pledged allegiance to him, were still connected to his own territory.

Lin Yu drew on some of the World Tree’s energy, expanding his consciousness once more to scan the lands beyond his territory.

With this wider perspective, Lin Yu felt like he had become a high-definition satellite.

Across the entire continent, excluding the territories of the advanced Lords and their subordinates, half of the eliminated Lords’ territories had already vanished.

Then, the remaining half of the territories was divided up based on the proportional number of advanced Lords from each race.

Next, the territories of each distinct race were gathered together with their newly allocated lands and separated from the others by spatial barriers.

The territories assigned to the Human Race were mainly located in the south of the continent; the northern part of the continent, where Lin Yu was, received no newly allocated land whatsoever.

Lin Yu felt like he was being discriminated against. But then he thought about his compatriots who had fought and died over pitiful scraps of land. Giving them some ownerless territory now could be considered a form of aid.

The separated racial territories flew off in different directions, which also indicated that for the upcoming Phase Four, everyone would likely not be in the same place.

’I wonder where all that vanished territory went?’

Just as Lin Yu was pondering this profound question, system messages began hammering frantically at the door of his consciousness.

"I never realized before how annoying these system messages can be sometimes, especially when they’re knocking like crazy. It’s like a swarm of mosquitoes buzzing in your ear, so irritating!"

Lin Yu grumbled to himself before letting the system messages into his consciousness.

[Dear Lord Lin Yu, congratulations on winning first place in Phase Three of this competition.]

[You will receive a special reward. Please be sure to check for it.]

[Congratulations on winning first place in Bracket 123456 of Phase Three.]

[You have received 10 Epic Treasure Chests.]

[Human Race Chat Channel 789 (6063)]

Xiong Da: "Hahaha, I got so lucky! I ranked 991st. I was almost eliminated."

Xiong Da: "@Lin Yu, thanks, great one! If it weren’t for the territory you gave us at the end, my brother and I would’ve been eliminated!"

Lin Yu: "It’s nothing. That was the result of your own hard work. Plenty of Lords took territories back then, but you were the one who ultimately advanced, right?"

Xiong Da: "You can only blame them for being too weak. They couldn’t withstand the Beastmen’s final counterattack."

Xiong Da: "But even so, I still have to thank you, great one! If it wasn’t for you, where would I have found a territory?"

Zhao Zhaonan: "Xiong Da, you’re so weak. What are you going to do in Phase Four? Want to pledge allegiance to us?"

Xiong Da: "No way! If I’m pledging to anyone, it’s Boss Lin!"

Zhao Zhaonan: "Tch~ Even if you want to pledge, there’s no guarantee the great Lin Yu would even take you!"

Zhao Zhaonan: "Recruiting, recruiting! Anyone looking to group up? You don’t have to believe in the Goddess; you can choose to be an outer-ring Lord. Just accept the Goddess’s quests, and you can get architectural blueprints, profound knowledge, and more as rewards..."

Mi Qisheng: "Recruiting! We have ample funds and corresponding outposts on the Contested Continent. Join us, and we can guarantee your safety, provide a variety of rich quest channels for your territory’s development, and even give you advance knowledge of Phase Four so you can plan ahead!"

...

After Xiong Da spoke up, the chat channel became lively again. The major teams, led by Yun Qihao’s and Qian Duoduo’s groups, began recruiting advanced Lords, preparing to go all out in Phase Four.

Lin Yu didn’t get involved. The main reason was that, as of now, he had no idea what Phase Four would be like, so he couldn’t make any corresponding arrangements.

There was nothing to be done about it. The publicly available information on Cuiwei Star only covered Phase One and Phase Two. Information on Phase Three could only be purchased from within the "Cuiwei Star Lord Corps."

As for Phase Four, there wasn’t a single scrap of information.

Lin Yu could only hope that after returning to Cuiwei Star, the Cuiwei Lord Corps would offer another training session, or that he could purchase relevant information after his permissions were upgraded, so he wouldn’t go into Phase Four completely blind.

Turning his attention back, Lin Yu looked at his territory’s core. 10 Epic Treasure Chests had appeared within it. With a thought, he moved them out and lined them up in the hall in front of the core.

Besides those, there was one more treasure chest.

Lin Yu thought, ’This must be my special reward?’

He then took out the chest and opened it.

"Space Stone, Orichalcum, Ancient Amber Stone..."

Lin Yu looked at the materials he had taken from the chest, feeling a sense of bewilderment. They all seemed strangely familiar.

It wasn’t until he saw the final item in the chest—an Interstellar Teleportation Array—that he realized.

He remembered that these were the exact materials he had used to build the [Universal Cosmic Transmission Array].

Lin Yu examined the Interstellar Teleportation Array again. With his current knowledge as a Great Druid, he could tell that the only difference between it and the Universal Cosmic Transmission Array was the name.

"Oh, for crying out loud! What a rip-off! I built a Teleportation Array myself last phase and haven’t even used it yet, and now the competition just gives me one for free!!"

"But still, is this Teleportation Array really the special reward for first place?"

Lin Yu didn’t believe the competition would be so stingy. The rewards in the past had always been generous. At the very least, it should have been a treasure chest, right?

His first-place finish in Bracket 123456 had earned him 10 Epic Treasure Chests. The first-place reward for the 40,410,086th competition should at least be on par with a bracket winner’s reward, shouldn’t it?

Lin Yu checked the information on the opened chest—Phase Three Advancement Reward Chest (Opened).

Sure enough, this wasn’t the first-place prize chest for the entire competition.

"System! Where is my first-place prize chest?"