After everyone finished laughing, Lin Feng raised his hand to suppress the noise.

"Alright, stop bragging. Zhao Hu, Tie Dun, Wang Wu, Arrow Eye, what levels have you all reached?"

Zhao Hu spoke first, "Past the halfway mark of level twelve. After a few more battles, I should reach thirteen."

Wang Wu said, "Level twelve, still quite a bit to go."

Arrow Eye said, "Past the halfway mark of level eleven."

Tie Dun scratched his head, "I just changed classes and am at level eleven. I need to train slowly."

Shadow Snake spoke softly from the corner, "Level twelve, almost at thirteen."

Su Yurou also said, "Level eleven."

Lin Feng nodded, fairly satisfied with the results.

"For the next few days, everyone, rest well and recover from your injuries."

Everyone replied in unison, "Yes!"

Lin Feng swept his gaze over them one last time:

"I am going to upgrade the territory shortly. You all go back and rest, and do not leave the village."

Everyone looked at each other, then nodded one after another.

Zhao Hu was the first to stand up, "Rest assured, Lord. We will stay in the village and go nowhere."

Tie Dun also patted his chest in assurance, "Lord, you go ahead with your business. I'll guard the gate and won't let anyone out!"

Wang Wu, Arrow Eye, Su Yurou, Scarface Liu, and A Wang also stood up, saluted Lin Feng, and exited the Council Hall.

Shadow Snake walked last.

Lin Feng stood up, went up to the second floor, and pushed open the room door.

The scene inside the room made him pause slightly.

The originally simple bedroom was currently shrouded in a layer of soft, pale golden light.

The source of the light was something that had appeared out of thin air in the center of the room.

It was a crystal, roughly the size of a human head, floating in mid-air.

The crystal was an irregular polyhedron, and each facet was slowly rotating, refracting a hazy halo of light.

Those halos were not just simple colors.

They were flowing with countless intricate runes and patterns.

There were outlines of mountains and rivers, miniatures of cities and buildings, and tiny specks of light circling and dancing around the crystal like fireflies.

It was breathtakingly beautiful.

Lin Feng's footsteps stopped at the door, his gaze deeply drawn to this crystal.

He had seen pictures of it in class and knew what it was—the territory core.

Every legitimate territory recognized by the National Fortune Cauldron would condense a territory core in its core area.

It was the soul of the territory, the hub for the lord to exercise authority, and the entity that most needed protection during a Nightmare Tide.

And now, on this night just after the level two Nightmare Tide, it had finally appeared completely before him.

Lin Feng slowly approached, reached out, and gently touched the crystal.

It felt warm and smooth to the touch, like petting a piece of fine, warm jade.

The flowing runes suddenly brightened the moment his fingertips touched them, and then, a stream of information surged into his mind along the point of contact.

【territory core connected】

【Lord identity confirmed: Lin Feng】

【Current territory: Beacon Fire Village (village-level)】

【Available operations: Query upgrade conditions, adjust core area, view territory status...】

Lin Feng did not hesitate and directly pulled up the upgrade condition query.

【Territory upgrade condition query (village-level → town-level)】

【Population scale: Target met (575 / 500)】

【Basic functional buildings and talents: All targets met】

【Defensive trial: Level two Nightmare Tide successfully resisted independently】

All three conditions were met.

The corners of Lin Feng's mouth curled up slightly. He had waited a long time for this moment.

"Upgrade," he said softly.

【Detected that Lord Lin Feng possesses a special item: territory leap card】 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

【Do you wish to use the territory leap card to migrate the territory to a new location?】

"Use."

The moment his voice fell, the core before him suddenly burst into an even more brilliant light.

The flowing runes seemed to come alive, floating out from the core, ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ intertwining and reorganizing before him, eventually forming a huge, three-dimensional map floating in mid-air.

On the map, mountains and rivers were clearly visible, and cities and strongholds shone like stars.

Lin Feng's gaze swept over it, and he quickly recognized a few familiar landmarks.

The Black Water River in the Riverbend Land, the craggy mountain ridges of the Bone Eagle Cliff, the gray-green wetlands of the Eastern Swamp, and the Crying Rift Valley in the north, shrouded in gray mist.

And right in the center of the map, a flickering red dot marked his current location—Beacon Fire Village.

Beside the light dot, countless golden threads extended in all directions, connecting other light dots that were either bright or dim.

Those bright light dots were other legitimate territories of Great Xia in the Nightmare World;

Those dim light dots were ruins that had already been destroyed.

Lin Feng's gaze crossed the Riverbend Land and moved westward.

Soon, he found his target.

The former site of Qingshi County.

That area appeared as a dim gray on the map, but the outline was still clear:

A square city, four city gates, crisscrossing streets, and labels such as "City Wall (Damaged)", "Arrow Tower (Damaged)", "Residential Area (Ruins)", "Workshop Area (Ruins)", and so on.

Lin Feng reached out, his fingertips tapping on the former site of Qingshi County.

【Target location confirmed: Former site of Qingshi County】

【Detecting... No strong rule conflicts at this location, no existing sovereign territory... Meets migration conditions】

【Detected a large number of abandoned defensive structures at the target location (City Wall, Arrow Tower, City Gate)】

【territory leap card special effect triggered: During the migration and upgrade process, the territory core power will automatically perform maximum restoration and integration on them】

【Estimated restoration scope: Main body of the city wall, four city gates, main arrow towers, buildings within the city (basic restoration)】

【Confirm migration and start upgrade?】

Lin Feng took a deep breath.

"Confirm."

Boom—!!!

An invisible wave burst forth from the point where his palm touched the core, spreading out!

The entire Beacon Fire Village, from the Council Hall to the wooden houses in the southwest corner, from the barracks in the southeast corner to the wooden wall at the west gate, was completely enveloped in a layer of even richer golden halo!

And the map in front of Lin Feng also underwent a earth-shattering change at this moment—

The red dot representing Beacon Fire Village suddenly detached from its original site in the Riverbend Land, turned into a stream of golden light, and whistled along the trajectory on the map towards the former site of Qingshi County in the west!

At the same time, the gray area of the Qingshi County former site began to be filled and lit up bit by bit by this stream of golden light.

Lin Feng's consciousness seemed to merge with that stream of light.

He could "see" that the ruins of Qingshi County, which had been silent for so long, were being reshaped by this power—the first thing to be restored was the city wall.

That giant stone city wall, twenty meters high, which surrounded the entire county, had once collapsed for the most part during a level four Nightmare Tide.

And at this moment, those scattered giant stones seemed to be pulled by an invisible hand, flying back to their original places one by one, piling up again seamlessly.