CHAPTER 288: MEAT GRANARY POOL

Points (1), (2), (4), and (5) weren’t worth looking at—the main thing was the bond skill.

Perfect fusion of Silver Sword Orchid Clan Sword and Stalwart Shield Equipment abilities.

With this ability, as long as attacks didn’t push past the Silver Sword Orchid Black Knights’ limits, all psionic attacks would be useless—extremely powerful.

With the first Silver Sword Orchid Black Knight’s birth, Carlos immediately started running the second ceremony...

Soon after, all twelve Silver Sword Orchid Black Knights were born, rapidly boosting Carlos’s forces by one-third.

He looked up at the sky as the sun gradually set, while his massive undertaking was just getting started.

"Return to the first dark mist layer!"

...

Several days later, first dark mist layer, vast ice plains.

"Roar!"

Black bull-like monsters huddled together, constantly letting out pissed-off roars.

They watched in terror as lightning streaked in the distance, countless of their kind cut in half, charred limbs scattered everywhere as the ice started filling with the rich smell of burnt meat.

"Getting a bit hungry."

Carlos sat in his carriage, surrounded by several guarding Black Knights, checking out this ice basin with interest.

The basin was long and narrow like a human eye, with upper and lower ’eyelids’ cutting like sword edges—vertical and steep—while the left and right ’corners’ had gradual slopes until level with the outside world.

"This is a good spot. If we bring in a water source and draw meat ritual circles, we can create the meat granary pools of later generations."

In the later third expansion Blood Moon’s Cry, humanity’s territories exploded in unprecedented warfare. Due to war’s impact, major grain-producing areas got hammered hard, throwing humanity into widespread famine.

Under these circumstances, human alchemists pooled their brains, combining ancient food-creation secret methods to finally develop meat ritual techniques that used monster corpses and water sources as materials to produce edible meat grain for humans.

Carlos was preparing for future needs.

The coming Wall Wars would drag on forever. Psionics and soldiers stationed here couldn’t rely only on external transport—doable short-term, but as time stretched and war intensity cranked up, various threats that might blow up in the rear would threaten food supplies.

Therefore,

He decided to transform this place into the third fortress, extensively renovating the basin to create a giant meat granary pool as a backup plan.

Meat granary pools required only two raw materials.

First was water—easily snagged on the vast ice plains by simply melting tons of ice.

Second was monster corpses—even simpler, since they were everywhere on the ice plains. When the dark mist changes came and real Wall Wars began, monster corpses would litter the ground with no need to worry.

After the Black Knights finished slaughtering the monster groups in the ice basin, Carlos ordered:

"Begin construction."

"Yes."

Behind him, nearly a hundred Psionics drove massive groups of Lulu monsters slowly into the basin.

The first step was clearing monster corpses. Luckily, no transport was needed—the Lulu monsters could digest these monster corpses just fine.

They tore and devoured like animals, some even fighting each other, nearly going nuts.

Without Psionic intervention, the basin would probably have exploded in a Lulu civil war over corpses.

Sigh, they mined and built walls daily without food, so when food suddenly showed up, the Lulu monsters’ frenzy was no surprise.

While Lulu monsters cleared corpses, supervising Psionics inevitably chatted.

"How many of Young Master Carlos’s badass Black Knights do you think there are?"

"I remember when we first arrived, I was lucky to see six gathered together, easily keeping thousands of Lulu monsters in line."

"Right, I was there too. They wore purple-patterned armor, different from these silver lightning Black Knights around us."

"Whoa! Counting that way, wouldn’t there be twelve total?"

"Twelve Black Knights with combat power crushing mid-tier—no wonder Young Master Carlos has the balls to build fortresses."

The Psionics got emotional, though they didn’t know most of Carlos’s forces were spread out farther away, racking up Spiritual Essence for him...

Carlos looked at the idle Red Spirit beside him and instructed:

"Red Spirit, pick out the spies from various factions among the Psionics and make a trip to Ember City."

"Caw?"

"After getting back this time, the third batch will probably get assembled quick. You’ll need to safely bring them back."

"Caw!"

...

While Carlos led everyone in enthusiastically building the third fortress, far away in the western Dotruu Kingdom, the Northern Hero led her companions in beginning their capture of Blood Snake Princess...

...

Deep night, Dotruu royal capital, a dark alley.

Blood Snake Princess, returning alone to her temporary hideout, suddenly had her golden snake pupils contract as she caught an unfamiliar scent.

"Who?"

Footsteps approached from far to near as a black-robed figure slowly showed itself, a low voice speaking:

"Blood Snake Princess, why are you in Dotruu’s royal capital?"

What did that mean?

Blood Snake Princess was confused, her brow furrowing as she demanded harshly:

"Who are you?"

The black-robed figure extended an arm, revealing a strange mercury pattern.

Blood Snake Princess’s tense nerves relaxed slightly, her tone annoyed:

"Mercury Cult—does this old lady need your permission for where she goes?"

The black-robed figure stayed silent. He’d originally been checking out the first prince’s secret hideout and hadn’t expected to run into this woman.

"Blood Snake Princess, Dotruu Kingdom is Mercury Cult territory. You shouldn’t be here."

The black-robed figure’s tone wasn’t friendly.

Blood Snake Princess narrowed her eyes, one arm transforming into a crimson python hissing with its tongue:

"Your territory? Does the Human Supreme Council know?"

The black-robed figure was momentarily speechless, then threatened:

"The Archbishop will arrive soon. I hope you can repeat those words before His Eminence!"

After saying this, the black-robed figure vanished.

Blood Snake Princess looked wary. The Mercury Cult’s Archbishop had unfathomable strength—definitely not someone she could mess with.

It looked like she needed to find a way to bail quickly.

While thinking, she turned several more circles before finally returning to her secluded temporary hideout...

Just as she pushed the door, a sharp greatsword suddenly appeared. Blood Snake Princess was shocked, immediately twisting her body into a weird position to barely dodge the strike.

Then she retreated sharply, spiritual power surging throughout her body, one hand transforming into a crimson python as those vertical pupils stared hard at the attack’s source.

The door scattered across the ground as clear praise came from inside:

"Dodged so quick—truly worthy of Blood Snake Princess who fused with Ancient Snake Blood."

A girl shouldering a greatsword walked out with a smile, a mysterious bronze sword mark on her forehead.

Blood Snake Princess’s heart instantly went dark.

Her seizure of Ancient Snake Blood years ago had left absolutely no survivors—how could anyone know?

"Are you a surviving Snake Clan member?"

The girl smiled faintly:

"Snake Clan member? Maybe."

"No, you can’t possibly be Snake Clan!"

Blood Snake Princess’s face was frosty as bone-chilling killing intent radiated out. This strange girl before her hadn’t even reached high-tier psionic level—what balls to ambush her!