And the most critical part is that this skill can also reset the cooldown time.

This means that after one burst from Sarah, the Sand Hourglass is fully stacked, then a reset follows, and another round of burst begins.

Cao Xing nodded in satisfaction; this passive skill is indeed quite impressive.

Sarah looked at the new hourglass mark on the back of her hand with a thoughtful expression in her eyes.

“The power of time? Incredible…”

The face of the Ancient Tree of Knowledge beside her broke into a gentle smile.

“It seems that the Dark Elf lady has indeed activated a remarkable ability.”

Cao Xing replied, “Indeed, thanks to Elder Simo’s fruit.”

Ancient Tree of Knowledge: “You are too kind, dear Lord of this Holy Territory.”

“The fruits on my head grow once every ten years; even if not given to the elves, they would wither away in less than half a year.”

Cao Xing nodded in realization, “I see.”

“Well then, everyone, please continue to rest.”

“Juliette, Nif, you should also carry on with your tasks.”

“Yes, Lord.”

The two sisters from the Tree Spirit Clan respectfully took their leave.

Under the gaze of the ancient trees, Cao Xing also left the area.

As he walked, he continued to organize the gains in his backpack.

“The biggest improvements have been absorbed so far, but I still have some resources in my backpack.”

“Shall I try to activate the advancement function of Basaze’s Altar…?”

“My warriors have been stuck at Level 50 for quite a while.”

“According to the earlier estimation, to activate the function for Fifth Rank to Sixth Tier breakthrough, 100 Divine Power points are needed, and I have sufficient Divine Power Fragments.”

With that thought, Cao Xing took out the gigantic altar.

“Clang!”

The heavy red altar landed on the ground.

Then, Cao Xing glanced at the Divine Power Fragments in his backpack.

After the second Monster Attack ended, he had 9 left, plus 3 given after an 80% progression of Rooted Out, now totaling 12.

Then there’s the [Divine Power Prayer Bead], which has accumulated 22 Divine Power points after 22 days of gathering.

Altogether, these add up to about 144 Divine Power points.

Unlocking the Valkyrie’s Second Form is still a long way off.

According to Cao Xing’s estimate, at least 100 Divine Power points are needed to unlock the altar’s advancement function.

He also had two items in his backpack that could increase Divine Power points.

Besides the A-level [Talent Crystal], there was also the [Relic: Light Emblem].

Both increase Divine Power by 100 points upon absorption.

Thinking it over, Cao Xing decided to use the [Talent Crystal] of the Light Seed.

“Though this Talent Crystal is very powerful and almost renders most Light Element damage immune after fusion,”

“But it has a fatal flaw: fusing the talent subjects one to the control of the Light God.”

“So now I’ll just absorb this Talent Crystal directly.”

Thus, he took the crystal out of the backpack.

[Do you wish to consume the ’Talent Crystal (A-level)’ to supplement the altar’s Divine Power?]

“Yes.”

The next moment, the glowing crystal in Cao Xing’s hand shattered, transforming into starlight that fell upon the altar.

Simultaneously, a red beam of light shot up from the red altar!

“Buzz!”

As the red light pillar dissipated, a System Prompt appeared.

[Unlock successful, new altar functions activated.]

…

A smile appeared on Cao Xing’s face.

“Haha, it worked!”

As expected, 100 Divine Power points were enough to activate the altar’s advancement function.

Not only that, with the influx of Divine Power, the statue of Basaze on the altar appeared even more imposing.

With an excited heart, he quickly glanced at the altar attributes.

[Basaze’s Divine Warrior Altar (Orange): Special Construction]

[Quality: Epic]

[Item Effect: A certain amount of tribute can be submitted to receive an ancient blessing, allowing subordinates of max-level Warrior Series professions to advance.]

[Details of Tributes Required for Advancement]

[Second Order to Third Tier: Same as before (remaining uses: 4623/5000)]

[Third Tier to Fourth Rank: Same as before (remaining uses: 1934/2500)]

[Fourth Rank to Fifth Rank: Same as before (remaining uses 767/2000)]

[Fifth Rank to Sixth Tier: 1 million Crowns, 10,000 food, 2,000 Mithril, 10 Master-level Elemental Crystals (remaining uses 2000/2000)]

…

“Oh my… after unlocking a new stage, the materials needed for breakthroughs have increased four to five times!”

“To have just one warrior advance to the sixth tier requires 1 million Crowns. That’s tens of billions for over a thousand warriors?”

“Damn!”

Upon arriving at this figure, Cao Xing was utterly astonished.

Luckily, only the Crowns and Mithril amounts increased four to five times.

The food amount just doubled.

However, that’s understandable given it’s a frigid world where food is incredibly hard to come by.

Even crops can only be grown in greenhouses, with not very high yields.

Even for a territory as large as Cao Xing’s, achieving self-sufficiency is still beyond reach.

Cao Xing pondered, “Regarding food, calculating for 1300 people means 13 million units, about more than 2 million kilograms.”

“This time, with Hilda and Bojie plundering numerous strongholds and the remaining tens of thousands of kilograms of grain in my territory, the amount should be sufficient.”

“As for the Mithril and Master-level Elemental Crystals, perhaps I can figure something out in the trading channel.”

“The one lacking the most should currently be Crowns…”

This time, spending over ten billion Crowns— even Fitz Walker’s side couldn’t gather so much.

After all, last time he had already helped Cao Xing gather three billion Crowns.

Cao Xing contemplated, “Seems I’ll have to wait for Bojie and the others to return, reassess the resource count, then see specifically what’s still short.”

“If it’s really tight, I’ll have to borrow some from the Old King.”

“After all, I rendered him a great service this time, so I suppose asking for a loan shouldn’t be refused.”

…

…

Meanwhile.

Hilda and others were advancing rapidly in the air, the airship gradually crossing the border into the Ice Crystal Kingdom.

Getting closer and closer to the territory.

The aftermath of Cao Xing, along with the Old King’s operation against the Light Church, continued to spread.

In that mysterious hall, fourteen stone chairs were floating in midair.

Among them, the mysterious presence seated at the head position spoke with a deep tone.

“What do you mean by this? Over 80% of the Light Church’s strongholds have been wiped out by the Old King allied with that Otherworldly Lord?”

“Including that Light Seed also being killed?”

Beside him, another Watcher Elder gravely replied, “Yes, Great Leader!”

“This is the result of our Eight Elders’ probe.

“Including the Watchers we sent to protect the Light Seed, all were slain!”

“All Light Sect members inside the strongholds were killed, and the resources within were completely looted.”

The leader on the main seat remained silent, his demeanor growing darker.

The entire hall was enveloped in an oppressive atmosphere!

…

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