"Orphan!" Leng Yue was shocked upon hearing Zhou Yan's background.
She found it hard to believe that Zhou Yan could possibly be an orphan.
It simply defied common sense!
If he were an orphan, how could Zhou Yan's territory be so powerful?
Leng Yue was filled with curiosity and felt she had to inquire from Zhou Yan personally.
Not a single mentor believed this to be true; they all felt the situation was not as stated.
"Don't look at me. This is all I could find out, and Zhou Yan's situation is indeed like this. The people there can all testify that Zhou Yan grew up alone, though his neighbors did take good care of him..."
Yang Junming had indeed gone to investigate Zhou Yan's affairs. As Zhou Yan's mentor, he naturally had easy access to such information. Even he found it unbelievable at the time, let alone others.
Someone with no background or influence could develop their territory to such an extent. Anyone would find this suspicious.
It was utterly unbelievable; they all felt that a mysterious force must be helping Zhou Yan from behind the scenes.
It was too well-hidden for Yang Junming to uncover.
After hearing Yang Junming's findings, they all became curious about the enigmatic Zhou Yan. A student like him couldn't possibly be without influence.
Simply developing such a large territory and assembling so many soldiers, especially cavalry, was not a small expense.
"Look at Zhou Yan's subordinates, aren't the equipment of these soldiers all diamond-quality?" one mentor had noticed this earlier but couldn't be sure.
"No way, one hundred thousand sets of diamond-quality equipment? Are you kidding me?" Many mentors were incredulous and looked at Zhou Yan's soldiers.
They then checked the situation of other soldiers and exclaimed, "Holy hell, how are these soldiers so strong!"
"Look at the strength of these soldiers, they are all so fast. These monsters are no match for them!"
"They are so powerful, they've taken all the surrounding treasures, as if they knew where treasures were. This must be some kind of treasure-hunting ability."
"Look at the strength of Zhou Yan's generals, they look extraordinary, but unfortunately, we can't see their specific information."
...
The mentors were once again shocked. Zhou Yan's soldiers were not only powerful in combat but also excellent at treasure hunting. Wherever they went, nothing was missed; all good things were taken.
These monsters were utterly incapable of stopping Zhou Yan's soldiers. After the second wave of charge, all the monsters were annihilated.
The soldiers began collecting spoils, taking all the monster corpses, leaving not a single one behind, and cleaning the battlefield thoroughly.
Meanwhile, Zhou Yan stepped forward to open the treasure chest. This chest was placed by Ziwei Academy and was not a loot drop from the Lord Continent.
"I wonder what treasures are hidden inside." Zhou Yan was very curious and immediately opened the chest.
As a beam of light flashed, Zhou Yan saw it was a B-grade building, specifically a barracks.
"Good luck. The academy actually provides building rewards. It truly didn't disappoint me." Zhou Yan was very satisfied and began to examine the building's attributes.
[Building: Brave Archers]
[Type: Barracks]
[Quality: B]
[Description: Can be constructed in the territory.]
This was a barracks building for archers, which looked quite good. He wondered what kind of building it could evolve into.
Zhou Yan continued towards the next location. However, he received a communication from other soldiers, asking if they should eliminate other soldiers they encountered.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Yan quickly replied, "They are all students from the trial grounds. There's no need to attack them unless they attack us first. In that case, we won't be polite."
Zhou Yan issued his command. After all, they were classmates, and there were no conflicts between them, so there was no need for hostilities.
The generals understood and did not engage in any conflict with other soldiers. The subordinates of those students were not foolish enough to engage with a group of cavalry; they would have to be insane.
Both sides departed separately without any combat occurring.
Zhou Yan then headed towards the next treasure, soon arriving in the jungle.
Here, finding treasures would not be so easy.
Many treasures in this area were hidden very discreetly and were difficult to find, even for reconnaissance aircraft.
This terrain was not conducive to cavalry combat, so Zhou Yan instructed everyone to dismount.
Zhou Yan ordered them to search carefully. However, Zhou Yan's mental perception was strong, and he soon sensed a treasure on a tree.
But Jin Ye also sensed it and said, "There's something on that tree, but there are also monsters hidden there."
"You noticed it too." Zhou Yan was surprised that Jin Ye had also detected it.
"I can sense hidden things nearby and judge them by the faint energy they release," Jin Ye replied.
Zhou Yan was truly surprised that Jin Ye possessed such an ability. This was an unexpected bonus, and he quickly said, "Excellent, excellent. Bringing you here was the right choice."
Zhou Yan leaped onto the tree. A viper hidden in the dark quickly attacked Zhou Yan. However, Jin Ye turned into a beam of light and charged towards it, tearing the viper in half with a single claw.
Jin Ye could still handle monsters of this level.
Zhou Yan pushed aside the branches and leaves, soon discovering a treasure hidden there. However, the item was not very high-grade, just a pair of gold-quality boots.
Jin Ye said, "The academy is only giving out things like this? It doesn't seem that great, not as useful as the spirit medicine obtained earlier."
"Haha." Zhou Yan laughed and said, "Gold equipment is already good. Of course, for us, it's nothing, but these rewards are indeed quite good."
Zhou Yan had money, so he was not short of equipment below diamond quality. However, for other lords, their soldiers being able to own a set of gold equipment would already be excellent, let alone higher-grade equipment, which they wouldn't even dare to dream of.
Even Zhou Yan could currently only equip tens of thousands of diamond-quality soldiers. As for the additional one hundred and forty thousand troops summoned later, they could only use platinum-quality equipment.
Diamond-quality equipment was considered very high-grade. Even many lords could only equip their soldiers with such gear, and Zhou Yan's ability to equip over three hundred thousand soldiers was already terrifying.