Chapter Ninety-Five: The Sorcery Altar

Your Majesty! I am truly, utterly miserable! Sniff sniff, please comfort me...

Mo Fangyuan’s head throbbed as he looked at Zhang Lingyun, who was pouring out her grievances before him.

A black floating obelisk, gray mist, an unidentified ranged attack...

With the Dark Dungeon and the Red-Eyed Zombie as precedent, the moment Zhang Lingyun mentioned the black obelisk, Mo Fangyuan understood that she was almost certainly talking about a sorcerous altar.

After all, that nameless book had said that Mystical Age was one of the only two modules of the block-people race.

In the Mystical Age of his past life, the sorcerous altar functioned much like a Nether portal. After studying the special notes and fulfilling certain conditions, one could open a portal on the altar leading to an outer-realm labyrinth.

Each sorcerous altar corresponded to a different outer-realm labyrinth.

In addition, sorcerous altars came in three kinds.

One kind could generate the Blood Church faction.

One kind would generate sorcerous guardians.

The last kind could generate nothing at all and existed purely for ornament.

Judging from Zhang Lingyun’s experience, she must have run into a sorcerous guardian.

Sorcerous guardians had fifty hit points. Besides ordinary attacks, they could also unleash ranged hex spheres and a locked-on death gaze. They were among the stronger monsters in the Mystical Age module...

Most importantly, they possessed intelligence and knew how to kite. Just one sorcerous guardian could finish off an iron golem.

When slain, a sorcerous guardian would drop the unique Mystical Age item: an Aether Blossom.

“I wonder what kind of changes they’ll make to the sorcerous guardian...”

Mo Fangyuan firmly refused to believe that the Mystical Age of this block world would be the same as the module from his previous life.

Needless to say, even the dark nodes that only spawned monsters in the original had grown tentacles and learned to attack people here. How could everything else possibly remain unchanged?

The Mystical Age module would surely be modified and strengthened!

The times had changed.

“All right, go find Arya if you want comfort!”

Thinking of how Zhang Lingyun had once been male, Mo Fangyuan, now restored to his traditional mindset, suddenly felt a slight chill below his belt.

“The sorcerous altar is described on the map as being deeper within the Dark Forest. For now, it does not directly conflict with the Block Kingdom, so we can slow down a bit...”

The vast blank regions deep in the Dark Forest on the kingdom map had been filled in by Zhang Lingyun’s tireless exploration.

From the map, there was a very wide river more than seven hundred blocks away from the Block Kingdom, deep in the Dark Forest. This river connected with the Yangtze River to the east and was a tributary of it.

Its current was fierce and surging, enough to destroy any creature that dared attempt a forced crossing. It severed the link between the northern and southern Dark Forests and served as a natural barrier.

The kingdom’s upper echelon would not let such excellent terrain go unused. After fierce discussion, they finally decided to set the scope of the Lockbreaking Operation to all regions of this Yangtze tributary near the southern border of the Block Kingdom.

In other words, the northern side of this river.

That meant this river would become an important battlefield in the future Lockbreaking Operation.

Over the course of three months, the specific plan for the Lockbreaking Operation gradually took shape through Zhang Lingyun’s exploration.

First, eliminate all elite monsters in the area.

Second, seal off every cave connected to the surface.

Third, place a large amount of flammables within the designated zone, such as coal and hay bales.

Fourth, before the official operation begins, kill or lure away as many monster groups as possible.

Fifth, mobilize the army and begin the Lockbreaking Operation.

Sixth, burn the forest and occupy the advantageous terrain to intercept the monster hordes as they form.

Seventh, seize the region and end the operation.

The operational plan consisted of seven major steps, each with several smaller ones...

Once, someone had said that a plan could not be too meticulous, or it would easily run into problems.

Mo Fangyuan sneered at that, considering it utter nonsense.

No matter the time, a precise plan had a far higher chance of success than a crude and simplistic one. Not just a little higher, but by a wide margin.

In Mo Fangyuan’s view, those who thought things should be done in a simple and brutal manner were either reckless fools or berserk warriors.

“Notify the head of the textile workshop and have the factory produce clothing like this!”

Mo Fangyuan handed the messenger standing at the doorway the pattern charts for a cloth tunic and straw sandals, and instructed him, “Tell them that the other work may be paused, but these clothes must be produced in quantities at least three times the kingdom’s total population!”

The Block Kingdom had very few kinds of clothing.

Aside from the standard cloth robe, the kingdom’s garments amounted to wool shorts, cloth gloves, straw hats, and the source of all evil: stockings.

Leaving aside whether they were embarrassing to wear in public, just speaking of warmth alone, the robe hung loosely on the body, and there was nothing underneath it. When cold wind blew into the robe, not every block-person could endure that feeling.

Moreover, robes were extremely inconvenient for work. As a kindly king, Mo Fangyuan absolutely would not permit such a threat to overtime to continue.

Now that cloth clothes existed, who would still want to wear that robe and suffer for it?

The Block Kingdom had a total of five warehouses: four small and one large. The royal grand warehouse was the only large warehouse in the kingdom.

It covered six hundred blocks, with two floors above ground and two below. It was a true behemoth.

“Lin Ye, what are you thinking about?”

Iron Nose kept calling her Lin Ye, clearly already used to her female identity.

“Ah!”

Lin Ye sat in her office chair with one leg crossed over the other. She wore the black dress she had brought out of the trial space, and her long legs, wrapped in black thigh-high stockings, swayed lightly in the air like a work of art.

She let out a long sigh.

She had once received systematic mathematical training in the trial space, and perhaps for that reason Mo Fangyuan had transferred her to the Ministry of Supplies to serve as the warehouse chief of the royal grand warehouse, managing the kingdom’s largest storage facility.

But that job was not easy.

Soon after taking up the post, the enormous inventory data dealt her a crushing blow.

There was simply too much stock. She had to check the storage conditions again and again to reduce errors as much as possible.

The immense work pressure left her breathless.

She had even developed the absurd idea of returning to the army and continuing to rank up.

“Xiao Tie, sister still has work to do here. Come find me tonight.”

Lin Ye picked up a report on stone storage and rubbed her temples as she spoke.

After all, her home was right beneath Iron Nose. They would have plenty of time at night.

“Mm...”

Iron Nose also saw that Lin Ye was busy and clearly had no time to talk with him.

He understood that.

Yet for some reason, he felt an inexplicable ache in his heart, as if something he loved had been taken away...

“What is wrong with me?”

The sixteen-year-old boy, newly entering adolescence, thought this to himself.

The view returned to Mo Fangyuan. He was still seated in his small calfskin work chair, writing furiously.

With one hand gripping his pen and the other pressing down on the paper, he drew one distorted symbol after another. These characters did not belong to the Overworld’s writing system, nor to Nether script.

They looked convoluted, yet followed some indescribable pattern.

As though they had been stamped from the same mold.

Countless myths and legends about them would appear in later generations. Some said they were the curse of the First Emperor of Eternity, and that breaking it would grant the wisdom and power of the Founding Emperor; others claimed they recorded the Great Way itself, and that comprehending them would allow one to effortlessly slay millions upon millions of monsters...

Scholars of script and language called these strange symbols Chinese characters, to describe their profound mystery.

This is the sixteenth month since I crossed into this damn world. The weather is cold, but the Block Kingdom continues to develop steadily. In another year, we will carry out a bold and mad operation... I believe that one day it will grow into a colossal force, liberate the block-people, and crush every monster into the ground, becoming the experience orbs that drive the Block Kingdom’s growth.