After returning from the underground world, time passed quickly and before I knew it, it was already the sixth day of this week.

Mo Yu got up early and experienced his newfound strength in the fighting training ground as usual.

Blood-marked tiger-masked men, leopard men, dwarves... warriors of all races have experienced it.

The record is touching, eight defeats out of ten.

There was no way, as he had not yet fully mastered the physical attributes that had been enhanced by the recent upgrade.

Moreover, at the same level, the individual combat power of the lord is far weaker than that of normal soldiers.

Winning two games is enough to show the result of Mo Yu's hard work.

However, training is training, and he cannot invest too much energy in improving his personal strength. He just trains for half an hour to an hour every day as usual.

In the territory, massive construction is underway.

After the territory was upgraded last night, Mo Yu immediately started expanding the territory.

Because the monster forces around the territory had already been cleared over and over again, the task of territory expansion was completed very easily.

The territory was increased from the original 1000000 square meters to 10000000 square meters, or 10 square kilometers.

It’s not very big, about the size of two or three normal administrative villages.

The territory expanded smoothly, and the originally discussed planning and construction of the inner and outer cities of the territory was officially put on the agenda.

Many areas such as livestock areas, agricultural areas, ordinary resource points, residential areas and military camps have been adjusted to the outer city, involving building adjustments, sewage treatment, lighting and other basic supporting facilities, and there is a lot of work to be done.

Conservatively estimated, it will take one or two months to complete.

Of course, resource collection and military training are continuing and will not be affected.

After breakfast, Mo Yu came to the Sand Trial Site.

In the past, the Sand Trial Ground only provided experience points for advancement, which was not of much use to a lord like him whose rank could only rise with the rank of the territory.

Now that it has been upgraded to level five, it has special rewards for passing the level, which makes Mo Yu very interested.

[Hint: Do you want to enter the Sand Trial Ground to challenge? ]

"Yes!" Mo Yu confirmed without hesitation.

[Reminder: The challenge of the Sand Trial Ground is about to begin. The challenge rules are as follows: 1. You have 1 minute to prepare before the challenge begins. After 2 minute, the challenge officially begins; 3. The challenge mode is a clearance mode. After completing the corresponding challenge tasks, you can enter the next round of challenges; 1. When the lord player starts the challenge, by default, only 4 soldier in the War Gate can be summoned as an assistant; 5. After entering the challenge, the backpack will enter a closed state; . Giving up or failing a task in the challenge level will be considered a challenge failure. After a challenge fails, you cannot enter the challenge again within one week;]

[Tip: If you challenge the death in the Sand Trial Land, you will not actually die, but it will be considered a challenge failure, and you will not be able to enter the challenge again within one month! ]

One minute, start the countdown.

Mo Yu quickly scanned the challenge rules of the Sand Trial Ground and couldn't help but frowned.

This form of challenge is not friendly to lords like him who rely on defense towers.

By default, only one soldier can be summoned as an assistant, and once the challenge map is too large, the defense tower will become cumbersome.

However, despite this, Mo Yu chose the Earthen Ant Nest Tower as his challenge assistant without hesitation, rather than a more flexible type of soldier.

Anyway, the Sand Trial Ground belongs to him. Even if he fails in the challenge, he can just try again after a while.

As for weapons, he chose a short sword and a lighter wooden shield, and then the dragon blood armor, gale necklace and other equipment he had been wearing.

As the one-minute countdown ended, the transmission began and Mo Yu entered the challenge scene.

The scene in front of him changed rapidly, transforming into a desert-style kingdom arena.

An ordinary circular colosseum, about the size of a football field.

There is a mummy standing stupidly opposite, and it seems to be the target of the challenge level.

[Sand Trial Level 1: Competitive battle, kill the challenge target in front of you. ]

A prompt popped up in front of Mo Yu, very considerately indicating the level type and challenge content.

Beat up an ordinary third-level claw mummy, easy.

Looking at the mummy that was roaring and rushing towards him, Mo Yu gave up the idea of ​​testing his own fighting ability.

He decisively summoned the Earth Ant Nest Tower from the War Gate and placed it next to him.

Faced with an opponent of this level, there was no need to mobilize the large army of ants in the ant room. They just randomly hatched an earth ant egg.

The rolling earth ant eggs burst on the ground, and a yellowish-brown rock ant crawled out.

Not bad, a fifth-level rock-armored ant, crushing this third-level ordinary-grade claw mummy in all aspects.

While Mo Yu was yawning, the rock-armored ant smashed the mummy with its sharp claws and followed up with an attack, easily killing the opponent.

[Reminder: Successfully challenged the first level of the Sand Trial Ground, and was rewarded with 1 yellow sands.]

Emmm...

Before Mo Yu could complain about the terrible reward, he was quickly teleported to the second level.

[Sand Trial Level 2: Competitive battle, kill the challenge target in front of you. ]

The challenge format of the second level has not changed. It is still a competitive opponent, but this time it is a third-level desert moth.

The Earth Ant Nest Tower automatically appears beside Mo Yu as the level changes.

This made him feel relieved. If he had to send them back to the War Gate and summon them again every time, it would be very difficult. He would be eliminated at the 20th level at most because the War Gate could not be opened.

Desert moths are flying creatures. Their way of attack is to flap their wings and stir up a cloud of dust, which can make you covered in dust. It's not very harmful but extremely insulting.

To deal with flying creatures, you naturally need professionals.

Mo Yu released the rock-armored flying ants in the ant chamber and easily solved the problem.

From the third level... the fourth level... all the way to the tenth level, the challenge mode has always been a competitive battle.

The difference is that the terrain and opponents are constantly changing, and even off-field interference factors such as sandstorms began to appear later.

Relying on the Earthen Ant Nest Tower, Mo Yu sat firmly on the high platform and defeated all opponents along the way.

The rewards received are also varied.

I thought the yellow sand was outrageous enough, but there was something even more outrageous coming up.

What kind of mummy's shroud was it? It was in a huge bundle and gave off an indescribable stench.

What's the use of this thing? Can it be transformed into a corpse shroud and turn generals and civilians into mummies in large numbers?
Of course, there are also some useful gadgets, such as the desert camel bell that Mo Yu obtained in the eighth level, which can summon a small group of camels in the desert.

Overall, nothing of great value.

In addition to these rewards, Mo Yu also obtained temporary bonuses within two or three levels, such as increased life recovery speed and enhanced strength.

I feel that the Sand Trial Land has a bit of the style of a Roguelike game. After completing a level, challengers can continue to receive rewards to strengthen themselves and challenge more levels.

Unfortunately, most of these rewards are of little use to Mo Yu. After all, there is no way to directly enhance the defense tower. At most, it can only improve survivability.

[Sand Trial Ground Level 11: Collection Challenge, please collect ten sand scorpion tail needles in the current area, limited to one hour. ]

The newly appeared challenge prompt made Mo Yu's heart skip a beat.

Sure enough, the types of missions are starting to change.

At this level, the terrain has changed a lot compared to the previous one and has become much wider.

The place where Mo Yu is now is in a vast desert. He and his earth-armored ant nest tower are alone on a sand dune.

All I could see was yellow sand, and no living creatures were to be seen.

The mission goal is to collect the sand scorpion's tail needles, so the first priority is to find the sand scorpion.

Judging from the current situation, the sand scorpion should be hiding in this desert.

Mo Yu recalled that he had read about sand scorpions in books. They were common creatures in the desert, ranging from one to two levels. Their strength was indeed very weak, and it seemed that the task of collecting sand scorpion tail needles was not difficult.

But in fact, this thing is very small, only the size of a palm.

If you are not familiar with its habits, it is difficult to find it in the desert.

There is also a one-hour time limit, and if you challenge it alone, it is easy to exceed the time limit during the search.

"Looking at it this way, apart from the first 10 appetizers, the following challenging tasks are quite difficult!" Mo Yu sighed.

Of course, this difficulty is compared to ordinary people.

As for Mo Yu, although he was not familiar with the habits of desert creatures, he had a lot of people under his command.

Under the command of the queen ant, the ants in the ant chamber searched for prey in the desert.

Sand scorpions are common in the desert, but they are difficult to find due to their small size.

There were quite a lot of sand scorpions lurking in the desert beneath our feet. Even though the ant colony was limited in its range of activity, they still completed the task quickly.

In less than ten minutes, ten gray-brown sand scorpion corpses were neatly placed in front of Mo Yu.

Because the sand scorpion's tail stinger is too small, the ant soldiers, which are much larger than it, cannot completely remove the scorpion's tail stinger. After all, they do not have hands as dexterous as humans.

This task naturally fell on Mo Yu's head.

Taking out the dagger from his backpack, he carefully cut off ten scorpion tail needles.

[Reminder: Successfully challenged the 11th level of the Sand Trial Ground, and was rewarded with 3 Claw Mummies. ]

The troops are deployed!

Although it is just a third-level ordinary soldier, it is a good start. At least it is no longer a filler weapon like Yellow Sand and Shroud.

……

The next nine levels are all collection and killing tasks.

The most difficult thing is to kill desert worms. These creatures usually move underground and it is difficult to find their traces.

It also has a certain degree of intelligence. When faced with the search of the ant colony, it hides underground like an old monk in meditation and never shows up.

If Mo Yu hadn't had the courage to come and lure the enemy, I'm afraid this mission would have failed.

However, when he thought of the scene where he was almost swallowed whole by the desert worm, Mo Yu couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

Fortunately, his usual crisis sense training was not in vain, and it was tested in actual combat. At the critical moment, he avoided the sudden attack of the desert worms from underground.

The 20th level was successfully completed, and Mo Yu came to the scene of the 21st level.

A dim room, very empty inside, with only a statue that looked like a projection of a Death Guard, standing quietly there.

[Sand Trial Level 21: Wisdom Challenge, please answer the statue's questions. If you answer correctly, you will pass the level. If you answer incorrectly, you will fail the challenge.]

Is there such a challenging task?

Mo Yu was shocked. For this kind of task, the Earth Ant Nest Tower was totally useless and he had to rely on himself.

You can't just push it, you have to use your brain.

He took a deep breath and walked in front of the statue.

The Death Guard statue opened its eyes and spoke with its lips moving.

"What smiles back at you if you smile at it?"

Yo, brain teaser?
This is what I am good at!

Mo Yu's eyes lit up, and he answered without hesitation: "Mirror!"

After he gave the answer, he vaguely heard the Death Guard statue let out a regretful sigh.

Then, there is a prompt that the challenge is successful.

[Reminder: Successfully challenged the Sand Trial Land Level 21, and was rewarded with a Spiritual Attribute +1. ]

"Attribute reward, great!" Mo Yu was cheered up.

The rewards for successfully completing the challenge seem to be getting better and better, and more and more promising.

It is not easy to obtain attribute points. You have to study an attribute book carefully for several hours to barely get a little bit. It is not as easy as just answering a question casually.

He rolled up his sleeves to meet the challenge of the new level.

It is still the same statue, and the scene in front of me has not changed at all. It seems that I plan to complete all 10 levels in this place.

But I don’t know if it’s an illusion, Mo Yu feels that the Death Guard statue seems to have richer expressions than before.

……

"What can solve all the mysteries?"

"Answer!"

……

"Which one would hurt more, my axe or my staff?"

"I!"

……

Mo Yu flew all the way and arrived at the 30th level.

The expression on the face of the Death Guard statue in front of him became more and more lively, and at this moment it was no different from a real person.

As a result, the questions became more and more tricky.

It stared at Mo Yu and asked new questions.

"One of my hands says life, the other says death, which one do you choose?"

Huh? Brain teasers turned directly into multiple-choice questions?
Mo Yu stared at the Death Guard statue's expression, and there seemed to be a hint of self-confidence and satisfaction hidden in it.

Does it think I will definitely lose?
While Mo Yu was hesitating, the Death Guard statue began to urge him impatiently.

"You have ten seconds left. If you exceed the time limit, the challenge will be deemed a failure."

This has never happened before.

Even though Mo Yu racked his brains for more than ten minutes, he didn't seem to urge him.

Are you so anxious, perhaps because there is some kind of flaw?

Perhaps, this is no longer a brain teaser, but... a trick!
Mo Yu thought of a common type of scam in the past, and his heart was moved.

Pointing to the left hand of the Death Guard statue, "I guess what's written on your left hand must be death!"

Originally, the Death Guard statue had a look of joy on its face, and was about to take out its weapon to reap Mo Yu's life.

But Mo Yu's words suddenly made it unhappy.

If death is written on the left hand, then life must be written on the right hand, otherwise it would be cheating.

The Death Guard statue held the word Death on its right hand, somewhat unwillingly, but ultimately had no choice but to let Mo Yu pass.

[Reminder: Successfully challenged the 30th level of the Sand Trial Land, and was rewarded with a Death Guard Statue*1. ]

huh?

The sudden reminder surprised Mo Yu.

Pie in the sky, there is such a good thing? (End of this chapter)