Chapter 590: Return to the Territory
Mu Ying had been seeking a rapid level advancement for over three years, incessantly pushing herself without a single moment of genuine leisure. She reduced her rest time to the minimum and often used the food produced by the Small World to restore the energy and strength she had spent, just to save time.
By now, her determination to ascend to Legend status was almost dissipating, her thoughts constantly turning homeward.
At this point, Mu Ying had gradually become unconcerned, primarily because she was confident about reaching the status of a Legend. Even if problems arose with the Beastmen, the 15,300 Experience Value needed to go from level 17 to 18 could still be gradually accrued, relying on the knowledge inherited from the Druid profession and her experience in nurturing plants and enriching the land.
In a hurried yet delayed manner, a month and a half later, Mu Ying sent all the livestock and plants to their destinations, and then flew to the Ul Camp to use the Transmission Array.
Her absence from Qingshan City over these years had a significant impact there.
According to her previous expectation, the territory should have been upgraded to a mid-sized city-level territory six months ago, but there had been no movement.
Upon realizing something was amiss, she monitored the territory page for a while and discovered that the population growth trend of the territory had slowed down significantly compared to before.
Then she made a call to the people in her territory and understood the reason why.
Over these years, influenced by her, the top-ranking powers known to her on the global ranking list were also striving to level up, similarly motivating all global players with leveling potential to earnestly earn Experience.
There had been some changes in the ranking on the global level leaderboard.
[Global Level Leaderboard]
[No.1. Mu Ying (Druid Level 17 0%)]
[No.2. Li Luoxia (Priest Level 15 58%)]
[No.3. Vinica (Bard Level 14 82%)]
[No.4. Maz (Mage Level 14 48%)]
[No.5. Draco (Barbarian Level 14 8%)]
[No.6. Atom (Wanderer Level 13 52%)]
…
Maz and Li Luoxia, like Mu Ying who had territories as their backing, showed the most clear progress; especially Li Luoxia, who leapt from sixth to second place on the list, while Maz moved up from fifth to fourth, leaving Draco and Atom far behind.
There was no helping it; professionals like Barbarians and Wanderers, whose Professional Experience mainly comes from effective combat, find it hard to locate opponents that can still offer them enhancement once they reach a certain strength level, thus naturally slowing down.
Vinica used her musical Talent, and through incessant traveling and promoting her new works, managed to maintain third place.
For those like Maz and Li Luoxia whose rankings improved, they linked the development of their territory with their professions, gaining conveniences.
Mazi City attracted a large number of mages and the Luoxia Territory was revitalized, even upgrading to a city-level territory this year.
Mazi City is now rightly known as the City of Mages, while Luoxia City is revered as the Holy City, the City of Priests.
Li Luoxia's transformation of Luoxia City truly won the favor of the gods, and her experience value soared.
Even though Mu Ying had been working tirelessly these past few years, the level difference between the two had significantly narrowed.
However, if Li Luoxia does not plan to become a Subordinate God, the Priest profession will still limit her. She will have to either change her profession, find other ways of cultivation, or simply stop advancing in legend.
The success of Maz and Li Luoxia inspired many Lords.
Some of them had notable innate talents in their professions, and some invited powerful figures in corresponding professions to reside in their territories, creating so-called Cities of Profession. They then issued favorable policies for professionals, aligning the overall style of their territories with those professions, thus creating unique advantages that attracted many players of the corresponding professions, which led to rapid development.
For instance, Nordic Luoya City, with the First Forest Patrol Daxia, became known as the City of Forest Patrols; Bear Country's Kajiatan City recruited the First Warrior Hernan and now is also known as the City of Warriors; First Barbarian Warrior's brother, the lord of Canter City, is now developing Canter City towards a Barbarian Warrior City.
Neon's Sakura City attracted the second-ranked Wanderer, Yamashima Yuusuke, making it the City of Wanderers; Southern Australia's Noa City built many performance facilities, all kinds of concert halls, and open-air stages, continually hosting music festivals and competitions, now subtly renowned as the City of Bards and the capital of music.
All territories with lords have unique features except Maple City. The lord of Maple City, Sindar, is dedicated to making Maple City the most beautiful territory in the world, where not only the landscape is stunning, but the local people must be beautiful as well. In Maple City, the better one looks, the better treatment they receive, regardless of their strength, making it truly distinctive.
Other territories with lords have issued many unique incentive measures to attract talents, except Qingshan City, which has seen slower development progress due to Mu Ying not returning for several years, causing a significant drop in its popularity on the World Forum, although Mu Ying herself remains quite well-known.
Now, in the World Forum's predictions for the city-level territory competition results, Qingshan City is no longer the undisputed winner.
However, although the forum users are less optimistic about Qingshan City, Mu Ying knew very well that Qingshan City was just a step away from upgrading its territory status. The population of the territory had already reached 98,124 people, just over a thousand people short of 100,000, at which point it could become a medium-sized city.
Other territories might have caught up somewhat in these two years, but to make up for Qingshan City's early-stage advantages would still be difficult and require more time.
Because transportation on Deep Blue Star is not as developed as it once was, for ordinary people, each long journey requires saving up a significant amount of money for travel expenses.
Qingshan City is definitely the territory with the most developed transportation on Deep Blue Star, not only having the highest number of transmission arrays but also hundreds of branching stone roads. Even now, the road construction in Qingshan City has not ended.
For players in the Xia Country Region, going to Qingshan City is definitely cheaper, more convenient, and faster than going to other lord-run territories.
For other players needing to move across regions, Qingshan City is also a crucial transportation hub, being the only location with a cross-regional transfer array connecting all regions. Other territories, even if willing, cannot afford to build many such arrays without expending a significant portion of their income.
Thus, Mu Ying is not worried that other territories will surpass Qingshan City. However, over time, the local people may start having doubts since she hasn't returned even during the New Year for several years.
If it weren't for her competitive spirit in upgrading, the spirit of the local people might have dipped even lower, which would not be acceptable.
Furthermore, the preliminary work on educational aspects in the territory is almost done, and in the past two years, there have been newborns. The development of Qingshan Academy needs to start taking shape bit by bit.