Volume 1: Hell-Tier Lord World Chapter 154: Moonlight and the Heart of the City

"Did it work?"

"It worked!"

Chen Gu said with a face full of excitement.

The undead hero credentials could finally be processed.

Chen Gu took out all the hero credentials he had obtained from this battle, as well as those from the forest garden earlier.

Adding them all up, there were nearly a hundred hero credentials in total.

Chen Gu did not cleanse them one by one.

Instead, he gathered all the hero credentials together.

Then, he had the corpse-eating vines dig up a large amount of light-absorbing stones from underground.

First, he laid a layer of light-absorbing stones on the ground, placed the hero credentials on top, and then covered them with another layer of light-absorbing stones.

Just as Chen Gu had anticipated, once these light-absorbing stones were piled up, they quickly radiated moonlight.

However, the number of hero credentials here was simply too large, and the moonlight emitted by the light-absorbing stones could not immediately dissipate the undead aura.

Instead, under the pressure of the moonlight, the undead aura actually began to concentrate.

Seeing this, Chen Gu couldn't help but smile.

He was not afraid of the undead aura concentrating.

Chen Gu didn't have much of anything else right now, but he had light-absorbing stones in abundance.

He had enough of them to build an entire city out of light-absorbing stones if he wanted to.

As he piled even more light-absorbing stones onto the heap, Kebas returned after clearing the battlefield.

The moment he saw the huge pile of stones glowing with moonlight in front of Chen Gu, he couldn't help but exclaim, "Aren't these light-absorbing stones? How can there be so many of them?"

"You recognize this material?" Chen Gu asked curiously.

"Of course. They used to be very popular, rumored to be able to channel the mysterious power of the moon. I used to have a necklace made of light-absorbing stones; whenever I went out at night, it felt as if I were shrouded in moonlight. Back then, they were extremely expensive. Even the Queen wanted to build a shrine out of light-absorbing stones, but there weren't enough stones to do it."

"There is a light-absorbing stone mine beneath this city. Its yield is enough to be used as building material to construct a Tier 5 city."

Upon hearing this, Chen Gu immediately understood what was going on.

It seemed someone had been selling these light-absorbing stones in limited quantities.

It was much like vibranium in a certain movie—in the hands of outsiders, it took a fortune just to cobble together a single shield, while a certain African tribe had an entire mountain of it.

The Shadow Moon Fortress right before his eyes was the exact same case.

It was just that they had done a remarkably clean job and managed to avoid discovery.

Now that hundreds of years had passed, Chen Gu had no intention of dwelling on the matter.

He simply said to Kebas, "We have plenty of these here. If you want one, just take a piece. By the way, bring out the undead City Heart for me to see. Let's find out if we can process it using the light-absorbing stones."

Hearing this, Kebas immediately took out the collected City Heart and various building stones.

Unlike other cities, the previous undead city had clearly existed solely for the survival of heroes.

Within that city, the number of regular troop units was extremely small.

However, all kinds of facilities serving heroes were in abundance.

Among those building stones, Chen Gu spotted an equipment workshop specially tailored for crafting weapons and gear for heroes, a training ground designed to train and enhance heroes' combat capabilities, and a beast pen specifically for capturing and training mounts for heroes.

With a complete set of such structures, even a rookie hero could be immensely empowered through various types of gear.

Looking at these items, Chen Gu didn't overthink it.

"Let's bring them over first. I'll synthesize them using the light-absorbing stones. If that doesn't work, we can always use the stones to cleanse them."

Chen Gu made his decision immediately.

Light-absorbing stones were wonderful items capable of purging the undead aura from all sorts of objects.

However, Chen Gu wanted to make better use of them rather than just performing a simple cleanse.

Therefore, instead of cleansing, he chose synthesis.

Picking up the City Heart, Chen Gu casually grabbed a building stone as well.

[Nest synthesis has begun...]

[Please provide a building stone or City Heart of corresponding attributes (0/1), please provide a successfully synthesized formula (0/1), please provide ten portions of synthesis materials (0/10)]

Chen Gu didn't have a formula; after all, he wasn't even sure which direction this City Heart was heading.

At the same time, the light-absorbing stones hadn't synthesized any new troop types yet.

Thus, Chen Gu chose another method: ignoring the formula entirely and directly pouring in a massive amount of light-absorbing stones.

Ten portions might not be enough, so Chen Gu threw in a hundred portions instead.

Anyway, the quantity of light-absorbing stones in his possession was quite substantial.

He wouldn't miss a hundred or two.

Sure enough, in the presence of an overwhelming quantity of light-absorbing stones, any synthesis formula became meaningless.

The light-absorbing stones transformed into countless streams of moonlight that completely enveloped the City Heart.

Under the illumination of the moonlight, the City Heart began to undergo changes.

Originally, the City Heart was saturated with undead aura.

Now, under the influence of the moonlight, the aura emanating from the City Heart shifted.

The undead aura slowly transformed into a radiant moonlight glow, and the color of the City Heart was affected as well.

At last, Chen Gu saw a unicorn appear on the City Heart, followed by two white deer, and then a soaring hippogryph in the sky.

"What is happening here?"

"They are being attracted by the moonlight, My Lord. It seems this City Heart has been influenced to a certain extent this time."

"Attracted by the moonlight... It appears the power of the Shadow Moon Fortress hasn't completely dissipated yet."

As Chen Gu finished speaking, corresponding information popped up before his eyes.

[Nest synthesis complete. Obtained Tier 5 City Heart - Moonlight Fortress]

[Territory Attributes]

City Name: None

Owner: None

Level: Tier 1 Town (Maximum Tier 5)

City Attribute: Nature

City Direction: Legion Garrison Castle (Medium)

Residents:

Civilians (0 / 500,000)

Laborers (0 / 100,000)

Guards (0 / 60,000)

Soldiers (0 / 120,000)

Officials (0 / 50)

Leader (0 / 1)

Buildings (Constructible):

Blacksmith, Farmland, Barracks, Warehouse, Market, Mage Tower, Moonlight Forest (trains Hippogryphs, Moon Wolves, Moon-Blade Panthers), Moonlight Cottage (trains Wood Elves, Elven Hunters), Moonlight Garden (trains Moon Deer, Unicorns), Moonlight Stone Circle (trains Moonkin)

Special Products: None

Training Speed: None

Weekly Visiting Heroes: Two (Nature affinity, guaranteed one who masters the power to train moonlight-affinity creatures)

"Moonlight-affinity creatures..."

Kebas also saw the attributes of this City Heart.

He couldn't help feeling a tinge of emotion.

Because of their striking beauty, moonlight-affinity creatures were often the objects of adoration among elves.

Meanwhile, Raven Nest, which trained various other creatures, was nearly abandoned by comparison.

Thinking back, there were still many unfair biases within the Elven race.

"It's fine. I am not an elf, and I don't harbor such notions."

Noticing Kebas's thoughts, Chen Gu stepped forward and offered a word of comfort.

"At least in my army, whether someone is beautiful or not makes no difference. Combat capability is what truly matters."