"Boom!" An old man suddenly burst out from a small courtyard. With a swing of his arm, he unleashed a blast of Sword Qi, instantly killing three or four Beastman Warriors.
Then, without further entanglement with these Beastman Warriors, the old man flew into the mid-air to observe the overall situation, before rushing towards the nearest Beastman Warrior.
While the old man seemed aged, his actions were incredibly swift. In just a blink of an eye, he reached the new Beastman Warrior, and with a single sword swing, he sliced the enemy right across the waist.
During that old man's targeted attack on the Beastman Warrior, Zhou Tian had already taken notice of him.
Zhou Tian was well aware that any entity that could make an appearance in the game interface would certainly not be simple in this world.
The NPC village that Zhou Tian was attacking was just a location that housed mission NPCs in the game. As such, he had foreseen that among everyone in this village, the most likely pillar of strength would undoubtedly be that mission NPC.
Having played the game before, Zhou Tian might not definitely remember the mission NPC of this particular village, but he still had a vague impression of it.
Consequently, although Zhou Tian later joined the fray, he was far more cautious than the other Beastman Warriors or even Beastman soldiers. He killed numerous NPCs, but from beginning to end, Zhou Tian had not overly exposed himself to their line of sight.
In the end, Zhou Tian's caution saved his life. The mission NPC's strength was far superior to what he had expected. Seeing the NPC's performance, not even Zhou Tian—whose strength had greatly increased—would last a few moves against it. If it weren't for Zhou Tian's low-profile performance, once discovered, the mission NPC would most likely eliminate him immediately after witnessing his extraordinary performance.
Although Zhou Tian hadn't attracted the NPC's attention yet, if things continued as they were, Zhou Tian, being a Beastman Warrior, would inevitably be discovered. Once that happened, even if the Beastman leader rushed over, he might not be able to guarantee Zhou Tian's safety.
Given the situation at the time, Zhou Tian decided to make a tactical retreat. While he ordered his Beastman soldiers to continue their assault, Zhou Tian carefully began to retreat towards the outskirts of the village.
Everything went smoothly. Zhou Tian took great care to remain hidden amidst the chaotic scene, which made it impossible for even the powerful NPC to keep track of the entire battlefield. As such, Zhou Tian managed to leave the village without the NPC noticing.
As soon as he safely left the village, Zhou Tian chose to retreat alone.
Given his actions, Zhou Tian had no doubt that he had greatly offended the NPCs. He believed that they would seek revenge as soon as they had a chance. As such, for his own safety, reluctantly, Zhou Tian decided to sacrifice his own troops as scapegoats.
Zhou Tian's departure did not attract the NPCs' attention. Once the NPCs in the village exterminated all the invading enemies, they probably wouldn't pursue him further. As long as the NPCs didn't gather intelligence from the monster side, they would never know the truth behind the incident.
Meanwhile, having finally breached the NPC village, Zhou Tian naturally wanted to accumulate as many battle results as possible. Considering the current state of the village, Zhou Tian's Beastman warriors were bound to be annihilated. However, due to the present circumstances, the destruction they would cause in the village before their obliteration would be unimaginably catastrophic. Thus, faced with this rare opportunity, Zhou Tian naturally hoped to maximize his gains.
In the end, with mixed feelings, Zhou Tian silently retreated straight from the vicinity of the NPC village back to his own territory.
Soon after, in a very short time, Zhou Tian discovered through his sensing ability that the number of his Beastman warrior minions was rapidly decreasing in that place. He had no idea how big a victory they had achieved, but he knew that all of his competent forces were left behind in the NPC village.
Of course, in return for such a huge sacrifice, Zhou Tian's actions also brought him substantial rewards.
Why was Zhou Tian willing to pay such a high cost to deal with that NPC village? Simply put, Zhou Tian's goal was nothing more than to earn merit. As things had progressed, even if Zhou Tian wasn't able to capture that village, his performance had already proven his ability to his superiors.
In fact, Zhou Tian's efforts were indeed rewarded with more gains than what he originally planned.
Zhou Tian's best possible outcome was naturally to capture that NPC village. If Zhou Tian were able to achieve that, becoming a Beastman leader would naturally not be an issue. However, since Zhou Tian was considering the possibility that there were strong beings in that NPC village, he also knew that his plan was likely to fail.
Therefore, Zhou Tian's fallback plan was, even if he couldn't take over the NPC village, he could still earn merit by killing as many NPCs as possible to weaken the village.
If the second scenario is going to happen, Zhou Tian's demands are not high. He just hopes the higher-ups could supply him with more troops. Regarding the promotion to the general position, Zhou Tian hadn't thought it would be so easily achieved. After all, other monsters had also earned merit to reach that point, and it would not be easy for Zhou Tian to replace them with just one or two actions.
In fact, it was indeed the case. After earning this merit, Zhou Tian was still a Beastman warrior, but the higher-ups recognized that he indeed shook the foundation of an NPC village. They didn't directly promote Zhou Tian to a leader, but on other aspects, they did compensate him.
Firstly, the Blood Moon Lord gave Zhou Tian a choice. If Zhou Tian was willing, although he could not be promoted to a Beastman leader, the Blood Moon Lord could assign Zhou Tian to become a skeleton warrior in the Skeleton Cave.
The standard of the Skeleton Cave was generally higher than that of the Beastman forest, and the strength of skeleton warriors was comparable to that of beastman leaders. In the bureaucratic hierarchy, it's the difference between the officials and the main leaders of counties and towns.
Zhou Tian did make considerable merit, but it was still less when compared to the total merits accumulated over a long period by other beastman warriors. Under such circumstances, if the Blood Moon Lord arranged so, it would clearly indicate that he held Zhou Tian in high regard. If this offer was given to any other beastman warrior, they would naturally accept it immediately.
However, Zhou Tian was clearly not one of those beastman warriors. Therefore, even though he knew that the Blood Moon Lord's proposal was for his good, Zhou Tian decisively rejected it for the sake of his own development.
After Zhou Tian made the decision to remain a Beastman warrior, the Blood Moon Lord didn't let him down and rewarded him a lot based on his merit.
Firstly, the issue of troops that Zhou Tian cared about was replenished within a short period of time. Under the Blood Moon Lord's reward, the number of troops under Zhou Tian leaped from more than a thousand to two thousand. Furthermore, in addition to rewarding him with troops, the Blood Moon Lord also granted Zhou Tian some experience. As a result, with the help of those experiences, Zhou Tian evolved once again. After the evolution, the original "strong talent" became "extremely strong talent".
Besides these rewards, Zhou Tian's biggest surprise was that the Blood Moon Master gave him a piece of monster equipment.
It was not until the Blood Moon Lord tossed him those equipment that Zhou Tian realized that monsters could also wear equipment. They just couldn't wear player's equipment. But if they can get monster equipment, they could equally utilize it to enhance their combat power.
"Sacrificial Scepter: Strength of the monsters under control increases by fifty percent, recovery ability increases by three hundred percent."
In Zhou Tian's opinion, the ability of the Sacrificial Scepter is almost like a divine artifact for a boss like him. But the Blood Moon Lord casually awarded him such a piece of equipment with strong power. So powerful that it showed the depth of the Blood Moon Lord, and it also made Zhou Tian understand why monster equipment is so rare.
Considering the ability of the Sacrificial Scepter, it's not hard to imagine what would happen if such equipment proliferated one day. If that really happened, Zhou Tian did not doubt that even if each fought for themselves, the monsters' strength would be completely sufficient to defeat the NPCs and players.
Unfortunately, all of these were destined to be Zhou Tian's wild guesses. Unless he made a great achievement and was highly regarded by the Blood Moon Lord, there would be no chance of getting this piece of equipment. Thus, the situation Zhou Tian had imagined obviously had no chance of becoming a reality.
However, Zhou Tian was just thinking about it, knowing that his expectation was hard to fulfil. After receiving the Sacrificial Scepter, Zhou Tian spent his time getting familiar with the equipment in his hand.