Lord Qi made a rare appearance.
While answering Adventurers' questions, he officially announced several important updates.
Blackstone Hammer King asked, "We've already cleared the third stage of Doomsday Frenzy, and many top players have entered the second chapter of story mode. When does the Lord plan to release new content?"
This was what many Adventurers wanted to know.
After all, thanks to its low entry threshold and extremely high rewards, Raging Tide was still the most popular Secret Realm in Miracle City and would remain so for quite some time.
In truth, the current content was already more than enough. The completion rate of Chapter One was still below one percent, and Stage Mode — as a grind-focused format — was designed for repeated challenges. Even if updates stopped for an entire year, popularity wouldn't drop significantly.
Even if one group of players finished everything and got bored, another wave would soon replace them.
Adventurers were highly mobile by nature. Most followed five, eight, or even more Underground Cities at the same time, constantly rotating between them in search of fresh content.
Blackstone Town was the largest and best-operated city in Skycloud Region. Among its tens of thousands of Adventurers, a huge proportion were wanderers.
To increase loyalty and reduce player drift, a city needed fast updates before players grew bored. However, a Lord's Inspiration was limited, and Adventurers progressed at wildly different speeds, so complete stability was impossible.
However…
In Miracle City, things were different.
On one hand, players simply couldn't get tired of it.
On the other hand, most Adventurers couldn't possibly explore everything in such a short time.
As a result, Miracle City's retention rate was practically 100%. Once Adventurers entered, almost none wanted to leave. From a business perspective, there was no urgency to rush updates.
Yet Lord Qi still surprised everyone.
"Doomsday Frenzy will officially open Competitive Mode tomorrow. All Adventurers are welcome to experience the new gameplay. As for Story Mode and Stage Mode…"
He continued, "This Lord plans to release three full story chapters at once, and the fourth stage of Stage Mode has already begun production. It is expected to launch once the completion rate of Stage Three exceeds five percent."
A barrage of announcements — new modes, new chapters, new stages!
The Adventurers erupted.
"Yeah!"
"Long live Lord Qi!"
"Three chapters at once? If I clear them all, I'll definitely hit Tier Two!"
"Competitive Mode is finally here!"
"Miracle City is insane!"
"Old Thief Qi really delivered this time!"
"The update speed here is unreal!"
"…!"
After answering questions about Raging Tide, Lord Qi addressed inquiries about the Ten Kingdoms Chronicle Secret Realm.
During this time, a tall, mature, stunningly beautiful Adventurer pushed her way through the crowd.
"My Lord! I—I'm Bihua, and I have a question!"
"Go ahead," Lord Qi said with a slight nod.
Although she wasn't officially part of Miracle City yet, her performance had been outstanding and had contributed significantly to its development.
Bihua was visibly excited.
"We saw how terrifying Genichiro Ashina is, and Sword Saint Isshin Ashina must be even stronger. Even so, Ashina is still at a massive disadvantage against the Interior Ministry…"
"How strong is the Interior Ministry really? And will there be a dedicated Interior Ministry chapter in Ten Kingdoms Chronicle?"
Lord Qi paused.
They hadn't even finished Ashina yet, and someone was already thinking about the Interior Ministry?
Adventurers really were greedy.
He replied, "Each national chapter in Ten Kingdoms Chronicle is set in a different region or era. Only then can each chapter develop its own style, culture, and atmosphere."
"The Interior Ministry borders Ashina and exists in the same time period, so it doesn't meet the criteria to become an independent main chapter."
"But…"
He continued, "Once Ten Kingdoms Chronicle is fully rolled out, I plan to create expansion packs for each main chapter. At that point, the Interior Ministry may appear as an expansion to the Ashina storyline."
Not a full chapter —
But possibly an expansion pack.
Bihua and the surrounding Adventurers were stunned. Lord Qi's vision was truly vast.
Given Ashina's quality alone, even a standalone Interior Ministry chapter would be eagerly anticipated. Yet instead of recycling content for convenience, Lord Qi refused to produce overly similar main chapters.
If the Interior Ministry appeared, it would only serve to enrich Ashina — not replace it.
That kind of discipline, creativity, and confidence made Bihua admire him even more. In her eyes, he had become the most visionary Lord she had ever encountered.
The Adventurers didn't know —
In the original Sekiro, the Interior Ministry was largely mythical, with very little direct depiction or lore.
There was almost nothing to adapt.
But for Lord Qi, that blank space meant opportunity.
If suitable materials emerged later, he wouldn't rule out creating an original Interior Ministry expansion to further deepen Ashina's worldbuilding.
Most likely, it would resemble a dark feudal regime inspired by the Warring States period of Eastern Isles.
Lord Qi's Sea of Inspiration could draw from countless games, films, anime, and novels. Warring States–era material was plentiful, and if blended with darker elements, it wouldn't be difficult to create a sinister shogunate-style power that matched Ashina's tone.
Secret realm creation shouldn't be constrained by rigid templates.
Lord Qi respected masterpieces like Sekiro and aimed to preserve their spirit, refining only details and scenes.
But he would never abandon creativity.
Raging Tide's Stage Mode was an original design, and its success proved originality could work.
Beyond pure remakes and pure originals, he also planned to use hybrid creation — especially for works with strong concepts but incomplete worlds or underdeveloped narratives.
For example…
Within Ten Kingdoms Chronicle, he intended to create a dark-style Three Kingdoms world, and he already had Wo Long as a base reference.
Undeniably, Wo Long was solid.
But it lacked scale.
The number of locations, characters, and plot depth wasn't enough to build the ultimate epic Three Kingdoms saga Lord Qi envisioned.
His expectations for the Three Kingdoms Chapter were extremely high.
So many legendary generals and ministers.
Such a vast Central Plains.
It deserved stories that were darker, richer, and more magnificent.
There was no shortage of source material either — from Dynasty Warriors and Wo Long to Knights of Valour and Killers of the Three Kingdoms. Each offered usable ideas, mechanics, or character concepts.
The historical Three Kingdoms saga itself was already compelling.
There was no need to be bound to the plotline of any single work.
Lord Qi could take history as the skeleton, add flesh and blood from countless adaptations, and forge a grander, more epic, more layered Secret Realm world.
And if such a heavyweight project needed more time…
So be it.
He needed more awakenings of the Sea of Inspiration and more Inspiration Crystal activations to gather sufficient materials.
After answering a few more questions, today's Adventurer session ended.
Miracle City could only host two hundred Adventurers overnight.
The remaining thousand-plus returned to Blackstone Town.
Once they left, the city grew quiet.
Lord Qi hadn't appeared merely to announce new content — he also intended to select a new batch of contracted Adventurers and promote those who met the standards.
Previously, Miracle City maintained three hundred available contract slots.
This time, Lord Qi increased the quota by one hundred in a single move.
Contracted Adventurers could use Miracle City's power at extremely low cost, greatly enhancing both its military strength and exploration capacity.
Not only that —
He also contracted Tier Two spirits for two Adventurers.
The first was Moonlight Snowfall.
When she cleared Chapter One of Raging Tide yesterday, her life-spirit fusion rate had already been close to 100%.
Today, she completed her cultivation without suspense.
Lord Qi contracted the named spirit Leech Queen Marcus to her, making her the first Tier Two Adventurer personally cultivated by Miracle City.
"Congratulations, Sister Snowfall!"
"She hit Tier Two already?!"
"She's not only Miracle City's first contracted Adventurer — she's also the first to break through to Tier Two!"
"…!"
Moonlight Snowfall officially became a Tier Two Adventurer.
Her lifespan and spirit power rose dramatically, and even without transforming, she could wield portions of her Tier One life spirit's abilities.
More importantly —
Thanks to her successful fusion with Leech Queen Marcus, she could activate her spirit form once per day through the Soldier's House, granting at least one free transformation daily for territorial missions or free exploration.
This massively strengthened Miracle City's overall combat power.
Normally, Tier Two Adventurers possessed 10 energy points.
Moonlight Snowfall, however, reached 15.
Why the extra five?
This was one of the benefits of contracting a Named Spirit.
Named Spirits carried inherent spiritual power, granting additional energy reserves to their hosts — another reason they were so valuable.
As for White Crane Hermit, he had originally been far from Tier Two. However, since he was cultivating after dispersing his previous cultivation, his progress rate was several times faster than normal.
After five challenges today, his cultivation exceeded expectations.
He reached full fusion a day earlier than planned.
He exchanged the Red Oni spirit from his old friend Three Bamboo as his Tier Two life spirit.
White Crane Hermit's Tier One life spirit was Tank Zombie, while his Tier Two life spirit was Red Oni. He also planned to contract multiple high-quality auxiliary spirits — such as G1, Witch Zombie, Ashina Soldier Captain, and Charger Zombie — as Tier One auxiliary spirits.
This would require massive contribution points.
Fortunately, White Crane Hermit had no shortage of those.
Why did he want so many spirits?
That required understanding the Adventurer ability system.
An Adventurer could theoretically contract unlimited spirits.
However, each contract consumed the Lord's spiritual power and rare spirit materials. Whether it was approved depended on the territory's foundation and the individual's contributions.
But for life spirits —
Only one could be contracted per tier.
All other spirits were auxiliary spirits.
The difference was fundamental.
Life spirits formed the core of an Adventurer's ability system. Each life spirit — and each combination between them — profoundly shaped the Adventurer's growth path.
Once a life spirit reached 100% fusion,
The Adventurer could break through to the next realm.
Their lifespan and physical attributes increased.
They could use parts of the spirit's abilities without transforming.
And traits from different life spirits could influence one another.
For example —
If White Crane Hermit activated his Tier Two transformation right now, his Red Oni form would have much larger muscles and a more imposing physique.
This was due to the lingering influence of his Tier One life spirit, Tank Zombie.
Life spirits themselves could also be cultivated.
Any life spirit could be upgraded to Five Stars.
This was another major difference between life spirits and ordinary spirits.
In short:
Life spirits defined an Adventurer's core build.
Auxiliary spirits provided additional forms and utility, without influencing each other or enhancing the Adventurer's base stats.
There were three major schools of spirit usage.
Thus, Adventurers could broadly be divided into:
Transformation School,
Summoning School,
and Body School.
The Transformation School was by far the most common.
Over 90% of Human Adventurers followed this path.
It had the lowest cost and highest convenience. Its core objective was to build the strongest possible life spirit combinations and fuse as many auxiliary spirits as possible to diversify abilities. These forms were flexible, powerful, and inexpensive to lose — death in spirit form carried very low risk.
The Summoning School had the highest cost — and the highest ceiling.
Whenever an Adventurer fully cultivated a spirit, they could summon it by consuming spiritual power. Theoretically, if they had ten fully cultivated spirits, they could summon ten spirit units simultaneously in a single battle.
However —
Non-life spirits could only be cultivated by consuming massive quantities of other spirits.
The resource cost was absurd.
Although this path had incredible potential, it was too expensive and inefficient for most.
It was usually used as a supplement — for example, raising a favorite monster spirit as a mount or signature summon.
The Body School was extremely rare among Human Adventurers.
It was mainly chosen by non-human Adventurers whose personal cultivation systems were already strong.
They relied primarily on their own combat systems rather than spirit transformations, using spirits only for trait boosts and skill enhancements.
They cared little about spirit strength or synergy.
Instead, they preferred spirits with powerful passive traits or skill-rich character spirits — especially the latter, which allowed them to directly use many of that character's techniques.
Human Adventurers did not belong to the Chaos World.
They could not be permanently killed there.
However, dying in physical form consumed spiritual power, severed connections, and caused experience loss — the cost was extremely high. Except for a handful of extreme specialists, Human Adventurers rarely fought directly in their true bodies.
These were the distinctions between the three major schools.
Miracle City had now developed for quite some time and possessed over one hundred contracted Adventurers. Regardless of their life-spirit cultivation levels, these Adventurers could transform or resurrect for free through the Soldier's House.
As for Bihua, Three Bamboo, and other non-contracted Adventurers?
Their spiritual power did not belong to Miracle City.
Thus, within Miracle City's territory, the spirits within their bodies were suppressed and unusable. This was why foreign Adventurers — no matter how powerful — could not threaten a Lord within their own domain.
Of course —
Once they left the territory's core influence range, this suppression vanished. They could transform by consuming spiritual power, though their transformation ranks were still restricted by territorial laws. In certain circumstances, foreign Adventurers could also be temporarily authorized for use by the territory.
Likewise —
In the future, Miracle City Adventurers would also be able to enter other Underground Cities,
showcasing Miracle City's power across the domains of other Lords.
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