Su Hao collected everything, and the total amount of items acquired included 1,349 low-cost weapons, armors, and swords, as well as 116 elements.
Among the 116 elements were gold, wood, water, fire, earth, and light, each of which numbered around 20 or so. He also obtained 196 energy stones and 37 mutant crystals.
Su Hao chose one out of all the other element types—a light element energy stone of the highest level in both energy and grade.
For a level five city-state wanted to break through the shackles of level five and reach level six, 200 energy stones, 30 mutant crystals, and 10 sets of elements were required.
At that moment, the total number of items in Su Hao's warehouse were 207 energy stones, 40 mutant crystals, and 116 various elements.
The conditions for the upgrade had been met.
In less than a second, a golden light flashed!
A line of text then popped up before Su Hao.
[Congratulations! The lord has met the conditions for an upgrade!]
[Castle upgrade to level six requires 200 energy stones, 30 sets of mutant crystals, and 10 sets of elements!]
[Please choose an element to upgrade!]
[Do you want to upgrade?]
[Yes/No]
"Yes! I'll choose the light element!" Su Hao commanded!
The castle before him started to change, and when the foundations of the other two sub-castles were upgraded, they soon became complete sub-castles, both of which were about 20 meters high.
Meanwhile, the area of the main castle had expanded to nearly 200 square meters wide, and its height had also increased to more than 40 meters! The building also reached the eighth floor!
The first floor's warehouse had also expanded from being able to store nearly 1000 units of food to nearly 2000 units of food!
Finally, the ceramic tiles on the walls of each castle—whether it was the main castle or the sub-castle—were all made with delicate patterns!
In the blink of an eye, a somewhat magnificent level one city-state had manifested in front of Su Hao.
The militia beside him were also shocked by the scene. They raised their weapons and tools while shouting, "Whoa! A city-state!"
"A level one city-state!"
"All hail our Lord! Your castle has become a city-state in less than a few days! You're second to none in the whole of this Endless Continent!"
"Agreed! We will forever submit to our Lord!"
There was an overflowing delight in the eyes of the militia!
What surprised them even more was that the small city-state made up of a main castle and two sub-castles was actually glowing!
It could shine in the dark night, like an indestructible star of light that rose in the endless darkness!
[Congratulations on leveling up!]
[Level: Level one city-state]
[200 energy stones, 30 mutant crystals, and 10 sets of light elements have been used!]
[Remaining: 7 energy stones, 10 sets of mutant crystals, more than 80 sets of elements!]
[Congratulations, your sphere of influence has been increased to five kilometers!]
[All resources within the territory belong to the castle lord!]
[Your troops and attacking structures will automatically attack and defend outside creatures that have entered the castle's sphere of influence without permission.]
[Your castle's defense has been doubled!]
[Your castle's durability has been increased by three times!]
[Your castle's influence and reputation in the endless mainland have been greatly increased!]
At the same time, in front of a level four concrete castle.
A slightly chubby castle lord was currently gnawing on ape meat with great relish as he looked at the castle with a smile.
"This meat isn't too bad, but I'll be able to kill it myself in the future. It's just elite-grade ape meat, after all. Once the invasion of darkness is over, my abilities will definitely be greatly improved. Hmph. That Su Hao guy is only a small step ahead of me! Now that I've upgraded my castle to level four, I won't face any problems when the invasion comes!"
As soon as he ended his sentence, a [World Announcement Update] popped up in his field of vision.
[Congratulations to the Holy Light Castle for becoming a level one city-state!]
[Castle Lord: Su Hao]
Once the announcement had been read, the piece of ape flesh fell to the ground.
Then, the castle lord whose castle had just reached level four wiped the corners of his eyes with a dumbfounded expression. He blinked and looked at the [World Announcement] in disbelief.
The shock was so great that his eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets!
"How is that even possible?!" It was a city-state, for goodness sake!
His was just a concrete castle!
He could not believe it at all! It was bewildering to know that there existed a god-like individual who could upgrade to a city-state in just four to five days!
In an instant, he and the other lords went into a frenzy within the [World Chat Channel]!
[I don't believe this! I've been stuck at level 3 for so long, and I'll need 30 energy stones if I want to level up again. 6 is already difficult to get, let alone 30!]
[I had to go through so much effort just to raise my castle to level 4! How did Su Hao do it?]
[This is terrifying! Just what kind of army does he have that he could upgrade to a city-state so quickly?]
[Dear heavens! Does that mean we can join Big Shot Su Hao's territory?]
[Say no more! I'm going to bring all my troops to his territory! I'd rather be his citizen than wait to be killed in a level 2 castle!]
[Let's go together!]
Time was ticking away, and the invasion of darkness was getting closer. Some of the lords who were too slow to level up slowly had no other choice but to seek refuge with Su Hao!
As the name 'city-state' suggested, people were the foremost resource needed to establish it. There was no time like the present to join Su Hao's territory!
For a brief period, many lords in the chat area were rushing to join Su Hao's territory and become one of his people.
Some of them even left their territory in groups because they were willing to face danger outside just to obtain Su Hao's protection. Some were rather curious about the kind of troops Su Hao had and how he came to have such tremendous ability.
Su Hao did not even bother to look at the chat contents because none of those things had anything to do with him.
What concerned him was how to earn more gold coins.
As a result, he immediately put the rest of the elements and weapons into his warehouse.
In order to avoid them from going to waste, Su Hao planned to exchange those weapons for gold coins.
However, trading elements was a no-go.
After all, elements were a resource that none of the lords had access to before the invasion of darkness. It was difficult for them to upgrade their castles to level three, and they had not come into contact with existences above level five yet.
After the first darkness invasion, all the creatures that the lords had to deal with would level up one after another.
By then, elements would slowly be popularized.
Even if they were trading elements in advance, lords who had level five castles and below had no necessity for them.
After all, no one in the entire continent had reached level five apart from Su Hao.
In addition, the gold coins possessed by the other lords were almost all collected by Su Hao during the past few days of transactions.
Su Hao felt that the lords would continue to kill monsters and collect gold coins from the corpses after the darkness invasion.
When all that was over, he would be able to gain a huge profit!
The sale of weapons could help him earn him some money as well, since they more mostly just scrap metal to him.
He had more advanced weapons in his warehouse for his militia to use.
Meanwhile, the low-level weapons were a lifesaver for the other lords.
Before the invasion of darkness, all the militia under the castle lord's command probably did not even have a decent sword. Weapons were therefore a necessity, so even low-level weapons could still be sold for a fortune.
With that thought, he put up all his weapons for sale in the [Trading Channel]!