Once everyone had boarded the ship, Gu Ning looked around at the crowd and said,"Everyone, I've always lived by one principle: if people don't mess with me, I won't mess with them."
"So you all don't need to worry that I'll harm innocent people. If there's a chance in the future, we can still cooperate."
It was just a polite, diplomatic statement.
The crowd quickly responded in agreement.
At that moment, everyone received a notification—the battle between the two domains had officially concluded.
Gu Ning glanced toward the Demon Domain lords and saw they had already opened teleportation portals and were leaving one after another.
Sigh, looks like there's no more loot to grab…
Gu Ning turned to Bai Xue and Licole, saying,"Contact me via the chat channel if anything comes up."
The two nodded, then each opened a teleportation portal and disappeared.
Stepping through the portal himself, Gu Ning finally relaxed. During the entire Demon Domain competition, he had to stay alert at all times—it was truly exhausting.
It was now noon. Gu Ning instructed his people to eat and rest for a while before continuing with their fishing.
Soon, Gu Ning was enjoying a meal prepared by Jasmine.
While eating, he opened the chat channel to see what had happened during the two-domain battle.
"Brothers, Lord Xia is insane! Absolutely terrifying!"
"Agreed! We're not even on the same level as Lord Xia."
"So many people died this time. Thank goodness I didn't go!"
"Haha, you're all too timid. I killed three enemy lords this round and raked in a ton of resources."
"Did you guys check the survival leaderboard? The top ten have changed a lot!"
"Of course! He Chuansinei got taken out by a boss!"
"Not just He Chuansinei—I personally saw our Spirit Domain's Danton get killed by a Demon Domain lord!"
"Damn, even Danton died?!"
"That Demon Domain lord is way too strong… I think only Lord Xia can handle him."
"Definitely. Lord Xia is unfathomably powerful!"
…
Gu Ning opened the survival leaderboard and took a look:
1st Place: Gu Ning (2560 points)2nd Place: Bai Xue (1320 points)3rd Place: Licole (1210 points)4th Place: Ye Baifeng (1111 points)5th Place: James (1097 points)6th Place: Kaidi (1000 points)7th Place: Elizabeth (999 points)…
Not only were He Chuansinei and Danton dead, but even the previous 8th and 9th ranked players had perished, pushing Kaidi up to 6th place.
As for this Elizabeth, Gu Ning hadn't paid much attention to her before.
Closing the leaderboard, Gu Ning began sorting through his battle spoils.
First were the 43 Ship Cores and 43 Territory Cores he had acquired.
Gu Ning had only personally killed about 30 enemy lords—the extras came from Demon Domain lords defeating Spirit Domain lords, which also rewarded Cores.
Aside from those, there were various miscellaneous spoils: low-grade wall blueprints, low-quality arrow towers, and some resource cards.
Gu Ning skimmed through them—most weren't of much interest. Still, there were a few treasures that caught his eye.
The most valuable were the 43 fishing rods—a fantastic find! With so many civilians under his command now, they'd all have tasks to keep them busy fishing.
In addition, two unfamiliar items drew Gu Ning's attention:
Micro Amethyst Vein Resource Card (White Grade):Use to acquire a micro-scale Amethyst mineral vein.
This was an excellent find, especially for someone like Gu Ning who commanded two Elemental Spirits—this would be a great support item.
It was just a shame it was only white grade and micro-scale, meaning the mineral reserves were likely minimal.
Energy Core (Green Grade):Can automatically collect ambient energy and convert it into usable energy. Small-scale energy core.
This was promising—Gu Ning wondered if it could generate electricity. If so, his energy problem would be partially solved.
He tested it immediately, only to find that it was merely a core. While somewhat useful, it couldn't address his energy shortage just yet.
Currently, it could only collect energy, but transforming that into usable forms required corresponding converters.
Sighing, Gu Ning stored the item away.
After eating, Gu Ning walked to the deck—some people were already fishing.
He handed one of the new fishing rods to a civilian and instructed him to distribute the rest and organize the fishing efforts.
At that moment, Gu Ning noticed Shipan seated nearby.
It occurred to him that he hadn't yet inspected this hero's details.
Gu Ning approached, and Shipan immediately stood up and saluted.
"No need to be so formal," Gu Ning said. "Is your lodging arranged?"
"Yes, Lord, everything is settled," Shipan replied.
Gu Ning nodded."From now on, these civilians will be your responsibility. Any issues with that?"
Gu Ning planned to delegate civilian management to others. Neither he nor Windsor's group would directly oversee the ordinary population anymore.
They were now the territory's core leadership—most affairs would be assigned to other heroes, while they focused on high-level management.
"No problem, Lord," Shipan replied firmly.
"Good." Gu Ning nodded, then finally opened Shipan's information—he hadn't checked it yet.
Shipan (Excellent Grade Hero)Level: 6Strength: 30Agility: 29Defense: 32 (+5 +3.2)Intelligence: 30Mana: 300Class: Hero, Shield WarriorSkills: Stone Skin, Great Shield, GigantificationEquipment: Azure Gold Shield (Green Grade)Loyalty: 83Affection: 72
Gu Ning had assumed Shipan was only of Good Grade, but to his surprise, he was Excellent Grade—a pleasant discovery.
He also noted Shipan's loyalty score of 83, with decent affection.
Gu Ning understood that heroes not summoned personally wouldn't have full loyalty—but that wasn't a major issue. Loyalty could increase over time.
As Gu Ning conquered more, he would inevitably recruit heroes—summoning every hero himself wasn't realistic.
As long as their loyalty wasn't dangerously low and they didn't betray him easily, it was manageable. He simply had to ensure his top leadership were personally summoned heroes.
Waving Shipan off to handle his tasks, Gu Ning turned his attention to the three spoils from the two purple sea beasts he had slain—hopefully, they wouldn't disappoint. After all, he'd nearly died for them.
Damaged Magic Eye Skill Stone (Permanent):Dropped by the Ten-Tentacle Demon Octopus. Due to external factors, only the information-viewing function remains.
Gu Ning was thrilled at the description.
While the skill stone lacked offensive abilities like the Ten-Tentacle Demon Octopus possessed, it was still highly valuable to him—he could easily let Dark Moon and the others learn it.
Windsor had often mentioned the difficulty they faced during solo hunts due to lacking identification abilities.