At this time, it has been eight and a half months since the city of hope was built, and the total population of the city of hope is as high as 2,429 people.

These included 200 Farmers, 20 Lumberjacks, 300 Quarrymen, 60 Coachmen, 50 Miners, 350 Swordsmen, 340 Marksmen, 274 Elite Swordsmen, 298 Elite Marksmen, 196 Sword and Shield Warriors, 228 Marksmen, 10 Instructors, 10 Tailors, 20 Blacksmiths, 10 Carpenters, 10 Leathermen, 10 Cooks, 10 Butchers, 10 Tomb Keepers, 10 Scholars, and 10 Doctors.

As for Meng Chen's resource space, he has 32,650 gold coins, 24 soul power, 6,980/10,000 grain (gray/white), 102/1000 wood (gray/green), 100/1000 stone (gray/white), and 10/1000 metal (green).

At present, the total population of the City of Hope is less than 2,500, but the number of soldiers is as high as more than 1,700, which shows how reckless Meng Chen is.

However, in the past two days, Meng Chen's army expansion plan has almost come to a standstill.

Today, the slightly larger animals in the Valley of the Earth Dragon have been almost slaughtered by the forces of the City of Hope, and the soldiers are no longer able to increase their experience points and collect soul points through killing.

It can be said that the more than 1,700,000 soldiers in the City of Hope grew up completely stepping on the corpses of the animals of the Earth Dragon Valley.

Due to the depletion of soul power in the resource space, it is obviously impossible to continue training soldiers in batches.

The 10 points of soul power obtained by 10 mausoleum keepers every day can only meet the summoning consumption of 10 civilians.

Tier 0 civilians are trained to become Tier 1 soldiers, which cost 1 soul power and 3 gold coins.

Tier 1 soldiers are trained to become Tier 2 soldiers, which cost 2 soul power and 6 gold coins.

Tier 2 soldiers to train into Tier 3 soldiers require 4 soul power and 12 gold coins.

In other words, the remaining 24 points of soul power from Meng Chen could only train 3 civilians into third-order soldiers.

"It's a pity that only one cemetery can be built, and only 10 mausoleum keepers can be trained. If you can build dozens of cemeteries in the City of Hope, you won't have to worry about the shortage of soul power anymore. Meng Chen sighed.

The ecological chain of the Earth Dragon Valley has been destroyed, and if Meng Chen wants to continue to collect soul power points to train soldiers, the only way out is to expand outside the Earth Dragon Valley.

Thinking of this, Meng Chen returned to the city hall and spread out the map around Dilong Valley.

The map traded from Lin Rufeng's hands was much more detailed than the map traded by Mu Lao.

Within a radius of 100 miles from Dilong Valley, there were two villages and fifteen fierce beast territories.

These two villages are Shanli Village and Lujiao Village.

Shanli Village is located in the north of the mountain pass, more than 70 miles to the northwest.

Lujiao Village is located in the north of the mountain pass, more than 80 miles northeast.

As for the fifteen fierce beast territories, eleven of them were solitary beasts, and the other four were two or more beasts.

In addition to the flame-maned lion, the closest solitary beast to the Earth Dragon Valley is located more than thirty miles northeast of the northern mountain pass, and it is a wolf-shaped beast - the lynx viper.

Staring at the map and pondering for a moment, Meng Chen decided to start expanding externally from tomorrow.

The first step in external expansion is to kill the lynx viper.

In fact, if he had a choice, Meng Chen didn't want to be tough with the fierce beast.

After all, the terrifying image of the flame-maned lion was still deeply engraved in Meng Chen's mind.

But who made the territory of the fierce beast belong to the area rich in ecological resources?

Instead of running around hunting small and medium-sized animals, it is better to simply kill a ferocious beast and turn the beast's territory into a new hunting ground.

When Meng Chen made up his mind, he immediately summoned Alfred and Ellie, and the three of them began to discuss the plan to hunt the beast.

The next day, Meng Chen, Alfred, and Ellie led an army of 1,000 people to leave the Earth Dragon Valley.

This thousand-man army consisted of 100 sword and shield warriors, 100 marksmen, 150 elite swordsmen, 150 elite marksmen, 250 swordsmen, 250 marksmen, and twenty three-bow bed crossbows.

The territory of the lynx viper, thirty miles to the northeast, would take an hour and a half to reach at the current pace of marching.

During the march, Meng Chen asked Alfred, "Alfred, according to the current strength of the City of Hope, under normal circumstances, how many Quenching Realm martial artists can be dealt with?" ”

Alfred replied, "If it was a head-on battle, even twenty Tempering Realm martial artists would not be the opponent of the City of Hope. If the Quenching Body Realm martial artists secretly raided, only five Quenching Body Realm martial artists would be needed to turn the City of Hope upside down. ”

Meng Chen continued to ask, "Using the Dark Iron Arrow smeared with the dragon's venom to cover the Quenching Realm martial artists, can it inflict fatal damage on them?" ”

Alfred thought for a moment and replied, "If the demon-breaking properties of the Dark Iron Arrow can have an effect on the Gang Qi of the Quenching Body Realm martial artists, then it is possible to kill them directly!" ”

Meng Chen nodded, and said secretly in his heart: "Isn't it time to find a chance to verify it?" ”

This hunt for fierce beasts is on the one hand to open up new hunting grounds to obtain resources, and on the other hand, it is also to verify the effect of the dark iron arrows and the black iron crossbow arrows on the blood color of the fierce beast's body.

That's right, the Blackiron bolt has been crafted by Chief Blacksmith Kobe!

Darkiron Crossbow Bolt (light green)

Sharp: B-

Robust: B

Durability: 3/3

Effect 1: Armor Piercing +20%

Special Effect 2: 33% chance to trigger the Lower Demon Breaking trait

Note: It will be an enemy nightmare!

The Darkiron Crossbow Arrow is very powerful, and its Demon Breaking trait has more than three times the chance of triggering the Darkiron Arrow.

It's just that the production cost of the Xuantie crossbow bolt is also very amazing.

For every Blackiron bolt crafted, the cost of Darkiron is ten times higher than that of Darkiron Arrows.

And with Kobe's current ability, he can only make ten blackiron crossbow arrows per day.

Note: 1 unit of Darkiron can craft 1,000 Darkiron arrows, or 100 Darkiron Crossbow Arrows.

Due to the high production cost and insufficient production, Meng Chen only carried ten Xuantie crossbow arrows this time.

At this time, more than half of the journey was over, and the army of the City of Hope entered a vast canyon area.

The surrounding terrain gradually transitions from dense mountain jungle to low grass fern flats.

This canyon area is about seven or eight kilometers wide and tens of kilometers long.

The canyon is home to a large number of bovids and wolves, and the lynx viper is the undisputed king of the canyon.

Woowoo......

As the City of Hope army deepened, dozens of wolf beasts were attracted and followed behind the army.

However, the wolf beasts did not attack, after all, there were too many people in this army.

A quarter of an hour later, Meng Chen pointed to the open flat land not far away, and asked Ellie, who was looking at the map, "How is it here?" ”

Ellie replied, "Perfect location!" ”

Meng Chen nodded and said, "Okay, start acting according to the plan!" ”

"Yes! Your Lord! Alfred and Ellie replied in unison.