"Sure! But don't go too far. If you encounter monsters you can't deal with, retreat back immediately. Put your own safety first. And remember to bring water bags and roast meat along as supplies," Zhou Zhou thought for only a moment before he agreed.
He definitely wouldn't let them go far from the protective barrier if it was like the beginning where his soldiers were only at the Elementary Grade.
However, an Intermediate Grade Black Iron-Tier Soldier was currently within their ranks.
Even though they were just 3 in number, they would not be in danger as long as they did not encounter more than 1 Black Iron-Tier Advance Grade fog monsters or a Green Bronze-Tier fog monster.
In addition to killing monsters, they and, by extension, him, would become stronger as they fought. Therefore, he dared to let them venture out to hunt fog monsters.
A moment later...
The 3 soldiers left the protective barrier with water bags and roasted meat to hunt the monsters outside.
The Blazing Sun City was protected with a barrier. As long as Zhou Zhou and the chefs didn't court death and leave the protected area, there was no need to leave any soldiers to protect them.
"I wonder if Bai Yung and the others will encounter other types of monsters. Maybe I can get other types of soldiers that I might spare if they do," Zhou Zhou pondered.
The day passed quickly.
During this period of time, the corpses of the Desert Fog Lizards were constantly sent back to the territory by Bai Yung, Hui Teng and Man Nao, Zhou Zhou would then retrieve the loots.
If there was a Sword Shield Soldier Recruitment Book, Zhou Zhou would use it directly and let Man Nao eliminate the summoned soldier, which in turn increased his Promotion Energy.
Over the course of the day, not only did they not lose anyone, Man Nao broke through to the Advance Grade of Black Iron-Tier.
Bai Yung and Hui Teng having become Black Iron-Tier Intermediate Grade Soldiers crossed the 400 Promotion Energy mark, just short of 100+ Promotional Energy to become Advanced Grade Black Iron-Tier Soldiers.
Night fell.
Zhou Zhou, who was eating roasted meat while surfing the World Channel, noticed that there was a lot of scarlet fog in the air outside the protective barrier.
"The scarlet fog has appeared!" He immediately stood up with a serious expression.
Lines of blood-red notifications slowly appeared in front of him.
[Warning!]
[Night is about to fall and the scarlet fog will cover most of the High Continent. Countless fog monsters will be born from the scarlet fog. Their strength will increase by 500% and they will start hunting indiscriminately! During this time, only the living things in the Novice Lord's protective will be spared. I suggest that the Lords recall all the people in your territory immediately to avoid unnecessary losses!]
"Bai Yung and the others have to come back quickly. Otherwise, they will be in danger when night falls completely,: Zhou Zhou looked at the warning with a solemn expression.
He opened the World Channel.
The Lords were also discussing the scarlet fog.
[This scarlet fog looks so scary!]
[This place is so good, why does it become a terrifying world when it gets dark???]
[It's so terrifying at night... I don't want to be a Lord anymore. I want to return to Cerulean Planet!]
Seeing a frightened fella to taunt, Zhou Zhou messaged on the World Channel
[Hey, chicken fellow. How about you step out of the protective barrier, I'm 80% certain that you would definitely return to the Cerulean Planet.]
[F*ck you, Blazing Sun!]
[Blazing Shit, better keep your degenerate traits out of this channel. We can't be dealing with real life crisis and yet still deal with your shitty taunts!]
[Blazing Sun, can you please be considerate to your fellow Lords of the same race? It's better we cooperate than to compete.]
[Don't tell me you usually make use of this level of intelligence to lord over your territory, Cloud Descent? You better let the fog monsters eat out your brain than to continue making use of it. Supreme Will has already said we're competitors; don't go about misleading the other naive Lords!]
After saying his piece, Zhou Zhou immediately shut down the World Channel.
"I hate people who can't accept a societal change all in the name of coming together to find a loophole the most. At the end of the day, those who believe in them would end up betrayed and hurt!"
He cursed, struggling to retain his mood to continue eating.
He, who had been looking forward to his subject's return, finally had his wish come true.
However, it wasn't just a Black Iron-Tier Intermediate Grade Soldier and 2 Black Iron-Tier Elementary Grade who returned, but 2 Black Iron-Tier Intermediate Grade Soldier and a Black Iron-Tier Advance Grade Soldier.
It was unimaginable for the other Lords at this stage to have professionals as powerful as his.
'Or maybe they are, I can't underestimate the Supreme Will,' Zhou Zhou thought.
He knew that if the Supreme Will could give him a Legendary-Tier Talent, who is to say he didn't give it to other Lords. Even Lords with better Talent than mine might be out there.
"So, I can't be over my head with this strength," he said as he looked at his approaching soldiers.
For his Promotion Energy, it was currently capped at 184.
16 Promotion Energy short of making it 200.
It's a pity the advancement of a Lord is 2x compared to his subjects.
"My Lord! We're back!" Man Nao came to Zhou Zhou and reported. "Hui Teng sustained some minor injuries during our return.
"Bai Yung, you should be able to do some low level of treatment on him, right?" looking at the Black Iron-Tier Intermediate Grade Soldier, Zhou Zhou asked him.
"My Lord, I've already done that. He only needs a bit of rest to get back to his rest," Bai Yung said.
"That's good," Zhou Zhou had just spoken when it suddenly hit him that Bai Yung and the others did not return with any Desert Lizard corpses.
He didn't hide his doubts and asked him about it directly.
"Yes, My Lord. This is related to what I am about to report. After we brought back the Desert Lizard's corpses previously, we originally planned to explore further away. However, we did not expect to encounter six people of foreign race on the way!"
"At that time, we had already hunted almost all the surrounding Desert Fog Lizards. I wanted to investigate these foreign races for you, my Lord. So we gave up looking for other Desert Fog Lizards temporarily," Bai Yung reported.
'Foreign races?'
Zhou Zhou's heart missed a beat.
'Do they belong to another Lord?'
"Is it another kind of fog monster?" He asked with a last glimmer hope.
It was only his first day of development and the conquest of his territory had just begun. He really did not want to encounter an opponent that might just be able to sniff him out of existence.
He might be able to loot hundreds or thousands of professional given enough time, and when their Promotion Energy has been hoarded together in a few soldiers, that would be the time when he had the confidence to face the other Lords.
"Their eyes aren't scarlet. I don't think they're monsters born from the scarlet fog."
"Also, they were fighting 4 Desert Fog Lizards when we found them and they had casualties."
"The other party seems to have discovered us in the end. They stopped fighting immediately, leaving behind the corpses of their companions before leaving."
While Bai Yung was speaking, Man Nao had gone to carry a unique-looking corpse over and placed it in front of Zhou Zhou.
This corpse was completely silver-white and was about 1.2 meters tall. It had slender limbs, but its head was humongous. Two pitch-black eyes stared blankly at the sky, as if reflecting its tragic death.
The fatal injury was a bite mark that ripped a hole in its neck.
Zhou Zhou looked at the corpse and raised his eyebrows.