Chapter 100: The Empire's Blade Hungers (2)

"This is art! Violence that belongs exclusively to art!"

In just over ten minutes, a medium-sized monster group numbering in the hundreds was completely reduced to ashes beneath the fury of the Blade of Empire.

A great many black forest trees were burned away by the raging flames. On this charred battlefield, not a single leaf remained to block the view.

Wind and snow, seizing the undefended gap, eagerly swept across the black forest. The bitter cold spread from the battlefield into the depths of the forest, the surrounding temperature plummeting sharply to meet the freezing air outside.

"Ding! Ding! Ding!"

Countless experience orbs surged into Mo Fangyuan's body, becoming nourishment for his growth. And with that, this medium-sized monster group became history entirely.

"Thud, thud, thud!"

Venturing deeper into the black forest, Mo Fangyuan continued his hunt. He pulled out the map Zhang Lingyun had drawn once more.

"This one? This one? Or this one?"

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe—which should he choose? The answer was right there! His target now was an elite monster on the far side of the black forest.

It was a mutant elite Creeper.

Its health should be somewhere around 120 to 140.

The Blade of Empire's base attack was 29 points. Adding the bonuses from Sharpness, Monster Slayer, Imperial Wrath, Strength, and other enchantments or buffs, his normal attack power was at least 50 points.

"Three hits and it's dead! The infinite edition of Daddy Kai!"

Mo Fangyuan suddenly realized he didn't need to think about any strategies at all! With the Blade of Empire in hand, he was absolute power! He could just charge straight in and auto-attack his way through!

Who cared whether it was elite or not? Still three hits and done!

"Hssss—"

Before him stood a massive green monster with four thick legs and a slender neck. Its legs were completely disproportionate to its body, like some kind of deformed aberration... well, it was a monster that deserved to be eliminated anyway!

"Looks like you're the one!"

The mutant elite Creeper's main attacks were melee strikes and jump attacks. Of course, if cornered, it would also hurl lightning. It had other tricks too, like charged attacks, explosive healing, and summoning minions.

"But you won't get the chance to use any of your skills!"

A flick of the fishing rod, a swing of the Blade of Empire. The mutant Creeper, still utterly bewildered, lost half its health bar in an instant.

"Eeeny?"

Just as the mutant Creeper began to react, Mo Fangyuan followed up with several more slashes.

"Hss!"

Who am I? Where am I? Why am I here?

Over two hundred damage dealt, and the mutant Creeper died on the spot with its eyes wide open in disbelief. The whole process took less than five seconds.

"Hss! Hss! Hss!"

The mutant Creeper's massive green body began to tremble violently, then turned white.

This was its passive skill: Grand Self-Detonation. After death, it could pull all nearby creatures toward itself and then explode. The blast was extremely powerful—even a player wearing iron armor enchanted with Blast Protection would lose a third of their health bar. It was a rather troublesome skill.

But who was Mo Fangyuan? He was a veteran of the mutant mod! He knew these monsters inside and out, down to the very foundations!

The fishing rod was already prepared in advance.

After killing the mutant Creeper, he immediately hooked a tree with the rod and yanked himself backward.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—"

Sucking in a few unlucky zombies, the mutant Creeper emitted a dazzling white light.

It became light itself!

"BOOM!"

After the tremendous blast, a massive crater emitting gray-black particle effects appeared on the ground.

"This explosive force is far more powerful than a regular Creeper's!"

Once the gray-black particles dispersed, Mo Fangyuan jumped into the pit, exclaiming in amazement.

"If I lured a bunch of these mutant Creepers into the monster faction's main lair, wouldn't that blow the whole place sky-high?"

With that, he walked toward the center of the explosion to start looting the corpse. Mutant Creepers spawned their drops directly upon self-detonation—that was one advantage of the Grand Self-Detonation.

"Let's see what treasures we've got!"

[Green Gift Pouch]

[Gunpowder ×37]

[Creeper Egg]

"...This thing is way too poor!"

The mutant Creeper's experience orbs only added a tiny sliver to Mo Fangyuan's experience bar, and the drops weren't anything special either. Compared to the Mutant Giant Zombie and the Mutant Stray he'd fought earlier, this mutant Creeper was truly destitute.

Casually tossing the Creeper egg into a still-burning fire block, Mo Fangyuan wiped his hands and prepared to gamble on his luck.

A Creeper egg dropped by a mutant Creeper could hatch into a baby Creeper. This type of Creeper could be tamed, and once tamed, it would follow its master around.

"And that's something the Cube Kingdom has no need for!"

Who was Mo Fangyuan? He was a Cube human! A spiritual leader who stood at the forefront of opposing monsters! An existence determined to become the nightmare of every monster!

But if he brought back a baby Creeper—a "lesser race"—to the Cube Kingdom, what would the people think? What would his supporters think?

One second you tell us Cube humans are the noblest and monsters must die! Then the very next second, you bring a monster back with you!

What's that supposed to mean? If that's not double standards, what is?

"Besides, this baby Creeper is useless anyway!"

Mo Fangyuan mused. Aside from acting cute, a baby Creeper seemed to have no purpose at all! And you'd have to go through all the trouble of raising it—not worth it!

[Oak Leaves ×2]

[Iron Chain Chestplate]

[Chrysanthemum ×3]

[Apple ×4]

Even his prayer to the "Black-Yellow King Who Brings Good Fortune" didn't help in the slightest. The gift pouch remained as disappointing as ever. Expecting good things from that thing was like "searching for gold nuggets in a septic tank."

"Alright, let's keep going!"

It was less than two hours into the night, and dawn was still far away. Mo Fangyuan planned to push through and eliminate all the discovered elite monsters near the northern border of the black forest in one go.

"Not many—just six of them!"

The elite monsters' races were respectively: Zombie, Skeleton, Spider, Skeleton, Zombie, and Creeper.

If this had been before, Mo Fangyuan wouldn't have dared to say such a thing. But now the Blade of Empire gave him tremendous confidence. No matter how powerful an elite monster was, it was no match for a Cube human's divine weapon!

"Hm?"

Taking out the map, he sensed something amiss.

"This map is off..."

Mo Fangyuan caught an unusual scent on the map. To make sure he wasn't just hallucinating, he pressed the map right up against his face.

"It smells nice... with a hint of cream..."

Suddenly, Mo Fangyuan understood something. He snapped the map shut, his cheeks flushing bright red.

"Well, well! That little rascal Zhang Lingyun actually dared to sneak dairy products behind my back! If I hadn't noticed so carefully, she might have kept on sneaking more!"

The Cube Kingdom had the technology to make cheese, but the production process was extremely tedious and required many raw materials, so it was still considered a luxury resource in the current Cube Kingdom. It was essentially only given out as ranking rewards, rarely available for exchange. And every exchange was clearly recorded.

Mo Fangyuan obviously hadn't seen Zhang Lingyun exchange for any cheese!

"Ah-choo!"

Back in the Cube Kingdom, Zhang Lingyun suddenly sneezed.

"How strange... where did my map fly off to?"

Zhang Lingyun wore a red robe, rummaging through her house in search of the map. Every time she crouched down, the springtime scenery in the room grew a little more intense.

"So weird!"

Clamping a found map between her thighs, Zhang Lingyun scratched her vivid red hair in confusion.

"I remember clearly putting that black forest map right there—how is it gone?"

"Never would have thought it! The person I trust the most has actually started stealing! This is a serious offense—I must punish her!"

Stealing... punishment...

At the thought of stealing, Mo Fangyuan's thoughts suddenly exploded. He realized he'd forgotten the single most important thing in the entire kingdom.

That was the law!

[History is always so inconceivable. The very first code of law in Cube human history, the "Cube People's Legal Code," came into being because Emperor Fang Shi mistakenly believed that his subject Zhang Lingyun had stolen cheese—"Interesting History"]