Chapter 9: Disya’s Little Gift

After inviting the young man and his subordinates into the conference room of Ghost Butterfly City Hall, Li Bin quickly had someone bring over Elise.

The moment he saw Elise, the young man turned to Li Bin and said, “I am Disya. Elise is the hero under my command. I will take responsibility for what happened this time. If you have any requests, just say them.”

Li Bin replied with a smile, “What requests could I possibly have? I know well enough not to cross VIP players lightly. Now, all I ask is that attacks like this on my territory do not happen again. Besides, my friends have heard of your reputation and warned me repeatedly not to make an enemy of you.”

Disya was taken aback for a moment, then decisively responded, “Very well. A thousand kilometers west of here lies the Snowpeak Mountains. We’ll use those mountains as the boundary. From now on, I won’t involve myself in anything east of the range.”

Li Bin glanced at the map hanging on the wall. The Snowpeak Mountains Disya referred to were already marked. According to the division Disya proposed, a third of the entire continent lay east of the mountains—which meant Disya was relinquishing all claims to that third.

But whose hands that territory would ultimately fall into depended entirely on Li Bin’s own abilities.

With this in mind, Li Bin said without looking back, “Release Miss Elise.”

Disya was very pleased by Li Bin’s action. Smiling, he said, “You truly are a man of courage, Mr. Li. I admire you. However, since you managed to capture my subordinate, it wouldn’t be fair to you to simply let her go. Consider these two small items as the ransom from my side.”

“You’ve already made a concession. How could I possibly accept anything more?” Li Bin replied, not even glancing at the items Disya presented.

Disya laughed, “It’s nothing. Elise is a VIP hero I purchased for fifty million credits. If you had taken her, you could have traded her at the VIP shop for credits. Instead, you returned her to me on the strength of a verbal promise. Given that, what harm is there in me offering you a little something in return?”

“That’s because I trust in your promise and your ambition, Mr. Disya. I believe you wouldn’t ruin your reputation for such a small piece of land,” Li Bin replied, striving to maintain a calm facade.

“Well said! For those words alone, I can count you as a friend,” Disya said enthusiastically. “If you ever need anything, feel free to contact me.”

“You flatter me,” Li Bin replied courteously.

The two sides conversed a while longer before Disya departed with Elise and his other subordinates, though he left the two items on Li Bin’s desk.

Only after the vampire castle had flown far into the distance did Li Bin open the gifts Disya had left him, and he was quickly stunned by Disya’s generosity.

One was a silver-gray crystal, with the number 500,000 inscribed on its surface. Countless wailing spirits swirled within. According to the others’ identification, it was a negative energy storage crystal, containing five hundred thousand units of negative energy.

The other item was a level-one Vampire Castle. As a mobile flying base, its negative energy production was only seventy percent that of the original Graveyard Demon—175 units per day—but its movement speed was one and a half times that of Li Bin’s main force. The Vampire Castle could not produce other undead units, only vampires (at double output and thirty percent less cost). Additionally, it came with three battalions of magical blood servants (for flight propulsion and aerial defense), and while airborne, it could only be attacked by flying units. It was, in short, the best equipment for rapid troop movements.

Li Bin pondered these two gifts for a long time before finally leaving City Hall with them.

At the fountain, he casually tossed the storage crystal into the water. Instantly, a jet of black mist shot more than ten meters into the air, with countless ghosts flitting back and forth within it. This spectacle lasted some time before gradually settling, at which point Li Bin noticed Ghost Butterfly City’s energy reserves had soared from just over four thousand to more than five hundred and four thousand.

Next, with his subordinate heroes looking on in excitement, Li Bin placed Disya’s other gift—a Vampire Castle—on an open plot near Ghost Butterfly City.

Amid a swirl of black mist, a somewhat smaller Vampire Castle appeared before them. The structure covered over five hundred square meters and stood no more than thirty meters tall, built entirely out of obsidian and floating three meters above the ground.

Li Bin circled the Vampire Castle, then ascended the steps that extended from its base. At the front of the castle was a fountain, too, spouting negative energy—though here, it looked almost like blood.

As he approached the main entrance, a vampire in a butler’s uniform, accompanied by a group of servant-dressed vampires, hurried out to greet him.

The butler announced, “Six squads of vampire servants and blood slaves report to the master.”

Li Bin realized these were the castle’s service staff and nodded. “Show me around the castle.”

The vampire butler promptly summoned six blood slaves to escort Li Bin on a tour.

The castle’s interior comprised three layers. The outermost level held the servants’ quarters for training magical blood servants, the defense room for external threats, and a chamber that could serve as a morgue or storage for corpses. When the number of fresh corpses exceeded one hundred, a vampire crypt would spawn a new vampire. There were also the bat loft for raising ghost bats, the wolf den for breeding corpse wolves, a bat roost for communication, and barracks for idle units below level five.

The second level was the castle’s elite zone, including the iron coffin crypt for training vampire warriors, the wooden coffin crypt for vampire mages, the blood pool chapel for vampire priests, the blacksmith for weapons and equipment, the Blood Tavern for rapid vampire recovery, and barracks for units above level six.

The innermost, third level was the castle’s core: a conference hall, the castle’s defense command room, three hero residences, a magic research lab, a necromancy transformation array, and several empty rooms.

After touring the Vampire Castle, Li Bin led his excited subordinates back to City Hall. Calmly, he ordered, “Upgrade the Vampire Castle to level three immediately. Summon Lydas, Water Moon Sky, and Jessica to Ghost Butterfly City for a meeting.”

Hearing this, Reid and the others instantly understood that Li Bin intended to launch a rapid expansion. Reid cried out excitedly, “Master, with so much negative energy, we must produce bone dragons first!”

“We’ll discuss that after the meeting. We need to plan our energy allocation carefully—we can’t afford to use up all our reserves like we did making Phantom Undead Archers,” Li Bin shot Reid a look.

Reid wasn’t bothered by Li Bin’s reproach. Instead, he and his Blood Night subordinates lingered around Li Bin, ready to extol the virtues of bone dragons whenever the opportunity arose.

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