Cultivation: When you take things to the extreme

"The attributes of these 'Mingxiao Taoists' can only be described in two words.

Garbage!

Their equipment is garbage, their attributes are garbage, and special skills... sorry, there are none!

Xu Yang had never seen a troop type without any special skills before.

You know, even the initial farmers in the Sky-reaching Tower have a 'Farmer' troop type skill.

But these Mingxiao Taoists, they have nothing, paired with their utterly useless attributes and shoddy equipment.

Garbage has never been a concern, as there is plenty of garbage in the Sky-reaching Tower, one or two more wouldn't make a difference.

However, as the final reward for a Second Order Dual Crown, being this trashy is somewhat unacceptable, especially since it is supposed to be on par with Immortal Spirit equipment, or even Immortal Spirit Heroes.

Thus, Xu Yang immediately started inspecting the details of this 'self-built troop.'

Although there isn't absolute balance in the Sky-reaching Tower, there is relative balance, everything has its place. It is not to say that everything is particularly worthwhile, but definitely has its value.

As the final reward of a Second Order Dual Crown, the fact that the attributes and skills of this self-built troop are so meagerly feeble can only mean one thing, its potential for growth is extremely high, inversely proportional to its initial attributes. This aligns with the rules and positioning of the Sky-reaching Tower.

Xu Yang opened the detailed description, and sure enough, there was more to it.

Self-built Rank: As a self-built troop, the Order and Rank of Mingxiao Taoists can be upgraded through combat, training, consumption of experience and resources. The current Order limit is First Order, Quality Rank limit being Elite.

Self-built Attributes: As a self-built troop, the attributes of Mingxiao Taoists can be improved through combat training and such, or even using 'Xu Yang's' Experience Points and Heaven-Connecting Coins for direct enhancement. The extent of growth depends on the Lord's personal attributes and the amount of experience points and Heaven-Connecting Coins invested.

Self-built Weaponry: As a self-built troop, Mingxiao Taoists can freely swap weapons in the 'Lord's Armory.' Lords can unlock armory equipment through combat capture, manufacturing, and direct investment. The higher the equipment order, the higher the recruitment cost and maintenance funds for the troop type.

Self-built Special Skills: As a self-built troop, Mingxiao Taoists can learn some of Xu Yang's skills and produce exclusive troop skills. The Lord can also directly expend Experience Points, reputation value, Heaven-Connecting Coins, and various resources to endow troops with skills.

...

Seeing the series of privileges for the self-built troop, Xu Yang finally understood why they were so trashy.

They were supposed to be this trashy; how else could they justify such authority?

Order, attributes, equipment, skills, all could be independently enhanced and altered.

What kind of troops are these? They're clearly heroes under the guise of a troop designation.

Sure, one might not make much of a difference, but what about one thousand, or ten thousand?

As a Personal Guard Species, the recruitment limit for Mingxiao Taoists is determined by Xu Yang's Commanding Soldiers limit.

With Xu Yang's current Charm attribute, Commander Skills, the Imperial Jade Seal, the King's Way, and various equipment and skill enhancements, his Commanding Soldiers limit has already exceeded one hundred thousand.

This means that even now, he could train up to one hundred thousand Mingxiao Taoists—ordinary heroes, Rare Heroes, Epic Heroes…

How they develop depends entirely on his training intensity; the more resources invested, the stronger this self-built troop becomes.

Of course, this investment...

Troop Order: First Order (Common)

Order Promotion Requirements: Currently can be promoted to Second Order. Promotion requires consuming one billion of 'Xu Yang's' experience points, fifty million reputation points, and fifty million Heaven-Connecting Coins.

Quality Rank Open Requirements: Currently, the Fourth Rank can be opened. The effect of the opening is determined by the resources invested; a minimum of ten million experience points, five million reputation points, and ten million Heaven-Connecting Coins are needed to open the Fourth Rank—Historical Battle.

"A glimpse into the leopard's den is enough to get an idea," from the enhancement of these self-built troop ranks alone, it was clear how massive the investment into self-built troops was. Without a huge investment, it was fundamentally impossible to train them into powerful troops.

As with the ranks, attributes were the same; every attribute point had a clearly marked price and required Xu Yang, the Lord, to expend experience points, reputation value, and Heaven-Connecting Coins for improvement.

Of course, attributes could also be increased through combat training and other methods, but the efficiency was undoubtedly lower than that of financial investment.

Apart from rank and attributes, the weapons, equipment, and special skills of these self-built troops were also quite unique and could be swapped and learned through "Lord's Armory" and "Lord Skill."

Xu Yang checked the Lord's Armory and found that it already contained numerous pieces of equipment.

Yellow Turban Wand: A magic wand used by the Yellow Turban Mage; equipment requirements: 30 intelligence, First-tier Mana LV5; swapping requires 2000 reputation points, 10,000 Heaven-Connecting Coins, 100 Spirit Stones.

Yellow Turban Robe: A magic robe used by the Yellow Turban Mage; equipment requirements: 25 intelligence, First-tier Mana LV1; swapping needs 1500 reputation points, 10,000 Heaven-Connecting Coins, 100 Spirit Stones.

Yellow Turban Crown: ...

All were part of the Yellow Turban series of equipment.

This was not surprising; the armory's equipment needed to be unlocked.

There were many ways to unlock equipment, including civilization grants, production from the territory, or obtaining them from defeated enemies. Just killing a certain number of enemy troops could add their equipment to the Lord's Armory.

Of course, the most direct method was still money consumption!

By directly purchasing the same type of equipment in sufficient quantities, it could be added to the armory for unlocking.

For instance, if Xu Yang wanted to equip his self-built troops with "Ancient Ingot Knives," he might need to buy a thousand or ten thousand Ancient Ingot Knives to fill the armory, then the option to swap to Ancient Ingot Knives would appear in the armory.

This was also a demonstration of the great potential of self-built troops, because theoretically, as long as you could fill the armory with enough Mythical equipment, you could equip your self-built troops with Divine Equipment.

A hundred thousand self-built soldiers meant a hundred thousand sets of Divine Equipment!

Of course, this was somewhat impractical, as amassing thousands or tens of thousands of Mythical equipment was perhaps more difficult than advancing to a Ninth-Order Lord.

Unless… you could produce and construct them yourself.

Compared to that, the "Skill Library" was much more lenient. As long as the Lord had the skills, they could be imparted to self-built troops through training and "money consumption," creating exclusive special skills.

With Xu Yang's current skill reserves, these self-built troops could theoretically generate dozens or even hundreds of special skills.

Of course, this was just theoretical. The special skills of the troops were restricted by Corresponding Rank and Quality Rank. A Fourth Rank Elite level Mingxiao Taoist could have only one special skill at most. To have more, one would need to enhance the troops' Quality Rank or expand the Troop Order.

In the end, it boiled down to two words—investment!

Without a massive amount of resources and significant investment, it was a pipe dream to successfully train these self-built troops.

"No wonder only Ninth-Order Lords have the authority to create their own civilization; below Ninth Order, it's simply unmanageable!" Xu Yang shook his head, his words laced with awe.

Although he was currently considered wealthy among Low-Order Lords, to train these self-built troops to match and obtain significant combat power, he still had to bleed financially and dedicate massive amounts of time and resources.

And this was just the self-built troops. When it came to creating a civilization, it was like a bottomless pit, which even Ninth Order Lords would find hard to fill.

But however difficult, it had to be filled. A self-built civilization and self-built troops were a symbol of power among High-level Lords. Forces like the Heaven-connecting Immortal Palace, Netherworld Tao Mansion, and Kunlun Immortal Realm, didn't each have their exclusive self-built civilizations and troops?

There was no choice but to suffer a bit more in the Demon Abyss!

...