"Stop!"
Chen Yu, holding the five-colored sword, stood at the forefront, his blade raised high.
All the soldiers halted.
At this moment—
They were in the final cave space leading to Black City.
In truth, this offensive against Black City, held by the necromancer, was extremely unfair. They likely had no idea that just five cave spaces away from the city, a camp was stationed, meticulously planning how to seize his city.
Chen Yu operated in the shadows, while Black City was exposed.
The disparity in advantage was obvious.
Furthermore, although it seemed to be only five cave spaces apart, finding Chen Yu's camp accurately was incredibly difficult. Any single cave space had six directional jumps, meaning there were 38,880 possible paths. The probability of finding the correct one was extremely low.
From the very beginning, Chen Yu held the advantage of dual-area positioning.
He was destined to win this battle.
However, before the fight commenced, Chen Yu still needed to make some preparations to mitigate risks.
"Er Gou."
"Camp Master!" Er Gou, carrying his broadsword, looked solemn. He truly projected the aura of a general leading troops into battle.
Seeing his serious and focused expression, Chen Yu couldn't help but smile slightly.
"Relax."
"The city we're about to conquer is a piece of cake for us, posing no significant threat. Just maintain your composure." Kanshu Wu. Xia.
"You stay here with our people and wait for my signal."
After patting Er Gou's shoulder, Chen Yu turned, only to hear Er Gou's low, steady voice.
"Camp Master, you~"
"Rest assured, just wait here for my news." Giving Er Gou a reassuring glance, Chen Yu looked towards Hei Dou, who padded over with a feline grace. "Dou'er~"
"Coming."
Swoosh.
With a leap,
Hei Dou nimbly jumped onto Chen Yu's shoulder. They exchanged a knowing smile, donned their magic cloaks, activated their stealth skills, and then jumped into the next cave space through the glowing portal.
The perilous city stood tall.
Its dilapidated city walls, long neglected, were cracked as if on the verge of collapse at any moment. The withered city plaque hung above the battlement, emitting creaking sounds with every slight breeze.
"Once we take Black City, the first thing I'll do is repair these walls."
Chen Yu murmured, gazing at Black City.
The city walls.
They were the most crucial aspect of any city.
These were uncivilized barbarians from the cave spaces, they didn't understand such basic principles. A magnificent and sturdy city wall was the most vital defense against foreign invasion.
With unrepaired walls.
Were they just waiting for an attack?
"I truly wonder how this city managed to allow that necromancer to develop so peacefully," Chen Yu muttered to himself. "If I had found it sooner, I could have plundered it eighty times over."
"That's you!"
Suddenly, the voice of the little devil whispered in his ear.
"Do you think everyone is interested in cities? What's the point for a normal person even if they acquire one? You don't seriously think they're all like you, do you?" kAnshu伍.ξà
Hiss!
It wasn't entirely without merit.
Even if others saw such a city, no matter how poorly defended, they might not have significant ambitions for it.
The reasons were simple.
First, they lacked the strength to conquer it.
Although Black City's walls were dilapidated and its defenses lax, the slave overseers were not weak. While they might not have been as militarily strong as a formal city-state, they were by no means conquerable by small families, let alone minor adventurers from the cave spaces. They lacked the capability.
Second, even if conquered, could they withstand a counterattack?
After seemingly taking the city, who knew if any remnants remained? How would they deal with a counterattack from these remnants? Or, if there was a larger power supporting the city from behind, how would they handle it if that power sent experts to punish them?
This was also a difficult problem to solve.
Third, after acquiring the city, how would it be developed?
Assuming the first two points were not issues, the city still needed development after being taken. The funds required to develop a city were astronomical.
This was by no means comparable to the development of a single family or camp.
The developer needed to have a macro-level perspective, the ability to construct a complete city operation chain, and sufficient capital.
If they couldn't achieve this, conquering the city would be meaningless.
After some initial development, problems would inevitably resurface, attracting covetous eyes, and lacking the ability to defend it.
It would be like paving the way for others.
Simply put, attacking this city involved taking on too much risk. Unless one possessed sufficient strength and was resolute, no one would dare attack this Black City.
This was precisely why the city had remained stable before Chen Yu's arrival.
In fact—
It was possible that Black City had also suffered attacks, only that Chen Yu was unaware of their failure.
Chen Yu's decision to attack the city was based on numerous factors. The most crucial one was undoubtedly the scene he witnessed that day: slaves being arbitrarily beaten and humiliated by the slave overseers, which compelled Chen Yu to act.
Besides, building a city meant making money!
As a modern man, his knowledge was simply waiting for him to shine in an environment like the cave spaces. Even if there were over a billion foreigners in the cave spaces.
Did it matter?
It didn't matter!
More than ninety-five percent of these billions of people were likely still struggling to maintain basic subsistence. While others might have ample food supplies, they were probably not as wealthy as Chen Yu.
Their development was incomparable to Chen Yu's.
To open up markets, the most important thing was to gain first-mover advantage. As long as Chen Yu acted quickly enough, his development momentum was strong enough, and he captured the market efficiently.
By the time others had the ability and capital to realize their modern grand ambitions.
They would only be left to nibble on the scraps Chen Yu discarded.
"I really don't know what kind of rotten luck you have, to be so fortunate since entering the cave spaces," the little devil murmured enviously from the side.
The luck she referred to surely included the times Chen Yu had won against her.
"What do you know? Your brother is a person of great fortune. When I was born, there were celestial signs, a golden dragon coiled in the sky, and a hundred birds singing in harmony. A radiant purple aurora split the sky and descended, striking the window of the delivery room and hitting me directly in the face." Chen Yu said proudly.
"No wonder your eyes are crooked; the purple aurora must have hit you hard."
"Huh?"
Chen Yu immediately gave the little devil an annoyed look.
"I'm not the Supreme Treasure; why would the Purple Sky hit me? That was a purple aurora, don't you understand? Imperial aura is purple energy. Forget it, you wouldn't understand even if I explained it."
Halfway through his explanation, Chen Yu lost interest and said solemnly.
"Simply put, the world's destiny totals ten dou; I, Chen Yu, possess twelve dou. The world owes me, Chen Yu, two dou. This is me, Chen Yu."
"Chen Ba Tian!"