Chapter 2713

The intense flames had already turned pure white.

Far stronger than that orange furnace fire.

Within the entire armory, this spot was the brightest.

The heavy, frigid steel ingot heated up rapidly—in just a moment, its surface had turned red-hot.

This heating speed truly had no equal.

A thick, heavy helmet was finished quickly, and compared to when he crafted with Tang Ruan, the time saved was more than half…

The gap was really too obvious.

And besides the flame factor, there was also the attribute factor.

When Zhao Chi piloted Tang Ruan, the attribute Piloting Art inherited onto Tang Ruan was Constitution.

It could raise Tang Ruan's Constitution to 21 points, making her extremely durable.

Unusually tough.

But when piloting Zhuang Ya, the attribute Piloting Art inherited was Intelligence, raising Zhuang Ya's Intelligence to 21 points.

The Intelligence attribute affected base efficiency.

And it also affected the value of each level of enhancement.

When Zhao Chi forged, he would transfer enhancement points to the Efficiency attribute, so on Zhuang Ya's side, the Efficiency attribute would also skyrocket!

Tang Ruan on the battlefield was truly a mainstay—standing there, enemies simply couldn't take her down.

In the forging fire pool, she could also display fairly strong forging ability.

But if compared with Zhuang Ya…

The gap really became quite obvious.

Roughly speaking, a difference of four times.

However, Zhuang Ya didn't have Tang Ruan's strong endurance and masochism tolerance, so she couldn't still use 20 Quick-Work Talismans in a row.

But now, like Qi Yue, she could also persist through using 8 Quick-Work Talismans.

Soon, a work cycle passed, and several dozen helmets were finished…

Quite satisfying!

Just as Zhao Chi wanted to continue forging, the system popped up a prompt:

【You have received a message from "Yin Wanyan." View?】

Yin Wanyan has come!

She's finally here!

Zhao Chi breathed a sigh of relief upon receiving the message.

This meant she was safe.

And that she kept her word.

Yin Wanyan 【Mr. Zhao Chi, sorry to keep you waiting. I've just entered the range of Shuibei Town. I expect to arrive in about 30 minutes. Is now convenient for you?】

Zhao Chi 【Of course, you're welcome anytime】

Yin Wanyan 【The situation outside is really not peaceful right now. We have to undergo inspection every time we enter or leave any werewolf-occupied zone. Especially going to other zones or returning from other zones, the werewolves interrogate very carefully—it's really wasted a lot of time】

Just as imagined.

The werewolves' offensive plan had suffered a setback, and now they were being besieged by the World-Breaking Army coalition, so there would certainly be changes within the werewolves as well.

Regardless, it was good that Yin Wanyan could come.

During the effect of Tai Yi Wheel, the number of visitors allowed in was limited, but fortunately there were 10 permitted slots.

Zhao Chi immediately added Yin Wanyan to the permitted visitor quota.

Half an hour later, Yin Wanyan arrived on time.

Zhao Chi did not have Gu Qing come out.

There was no need for Yin Wanyan to see her right now; if needed later, she could anytime.

For example, when selling low-quality fashion items or other supplies, Gu Qing could step in, but in the short term these probably wouldn't be needed either.

Low-quality fashion items could be sold to the White Tiger Regiment first.

Once the White Tiger Regiment was saturated, they could consider selling to other World-Breaking Army members; once the World-Breaking Army was also saturated, they could have Wanyan sell them outside.

But that would probably take quite a long time.

This time was still in the meeting room of Taoyuan Town.

Coming with Wanyan were her two female subordinates.

After the usual pleasantries.

Both sides got straight to the point.

Yin Wanyan picked up a bowl of feather milk and began to complain while drinking.

"Sigh…

"You don't know, it's really chaotic outside right now.

"The werewolves are relocating residents from surrounding towns—anyone who doesn't want to move gets killed.

"It's made us run into walls everywhere; several towns are in total chaos, we can't buy anything.

"Some places are killing so fiercely that we really don't dare go in.

"So we can only buy items for you in the few safe places available.

"It's really not as smooth as imagined."

Zhao Chi frowned slightly as he listened.

"Other towns have all become like this?"

GLOSSARY

Zhao Chi, Tang Ruan, Gu Qing, Shopkeeper Wanyan, Yin Wanyan, Zhuang Ya, Qi Yue, Tai Yi Wheel, White Tiger Regiment, World-Breaking Army, Shuibei Town, Taoyuan Town, Quick-Work Talismans, Piloting Art

Shopkeeper Wanyan nodded: "I don't know why, but quite a few of the werewolf-occupied zones on the outer perimeter are in this state. It looks like the werewolves are contracting the range of their territory."

"Contracting?"

"Right. Most of the villages on the outer perimeter have been completely emptied. The werewolves didn't even bother with the formation arrays—they cleared out all the people and supplies directly, and… in some villages there were massacres."

Zhao Chi was stunned for a moment.

Then he asked, "The werewolves are relocating residents? From where to where?"

Yin Wanyan said, "Where else could they move them to? Most of them are being relocated into werewolf territory."

"Into werewolf territory?"

"Right."

Zhao Chi couldn't help but sit up straight.

Forcibly relocating people from the Greater World into a territory could only mean one thing.

Enslavement.

Generally, no lord is willing to take in residents from the Greater World.

Hiring them would be fine, but no lord is willing to fully absorb them.

Because their loyalty and submission can't be seen.

That's very strange.

Logically speaking, residents that appear in the Territory World are exactly the same as those in the Greater World—flesh-and-blood people, with no difference at all.

Yet in the system, there is a fundamental distinction.

Although the race is listed as human for both, the humans that appear from the Territory World all have submission and loyalty values.

Even if they change lords, these two data points remain.

But people from the Greater World don't have them.

For example, Su Qin is now completely Zhao Chi's subordinate lord, yet Zhao Chi can't see her loyalty or submission values.

He can't see affection either.

In essence, Su Qin is still different from Gu Qing and the others.