Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 243: Valley Town

"Bayerpedo!"

One of the accompanying Freemen suddenly spoke in a low voice, uttering a few tongue-twisting syllables. The instant translation rendered it as: Valley Town.

Li Wei looked at him with curiosity and called his name. "Xavier, you know this place?"

"My lord, this was once my hometown. Fifteen years ago, I fled with my family — because a massive creature crawled out from beneath the church, and many people vanished without explanation. We thought the devil had come to claim the world. I never imagined that fifteen years later, I'd be standing here again."

Xavier pointed toward a red-roofed building at the center of town. "That's the church of Bayerpedo. Hard to believe — they say a massive pit collapsed beneath it, and yet after all these years, the church is still standing."

With that, Xavier and the other Freemen looked to Li Wei with barely contained excitement.

What was this — did they think they were unlocking a new dungeon, and this conversation was the opening cutscene?

Well. Come to think of it, that wasn't entirely wrong.

Li Wei turned to Liang Yuzhi. "Auntie, what do you think?"

Liang Yuzhi looked like she wanted to roll her eyes but held back. "Me? I think the scenery here is lovely. I'll take point."Good. That was exactly what he'd been waiting for.

Everyone quickly disembarked, checked their weapons and gear, and Adai soared up to five hundred meters altitude, ready to act at any moment.

Li Wei drew his Three-Star War Bow and nocked it. This time he intended to play pure ranged support.

Liang Yuzhi pulled out a sapper shovel — yes, the enchanted sapper shovel she'd dug up from the ruins of the town a couple of months ago, the one she'd been using ever since to dig up wild vegetables and herbs.

Nothing wrong with that. This wasn't the rookie mission, and they weren't short on tools at the start. Use whatever you liked — lose or break it and there would be consequences.

What surprised Li Wei was that Liang Yuzhi apparently had no proper weapon at all, and wasn't wearing any armor either — just cloth shoes and ordinary clothes. Don't get too cocky now.

"Auntie, maybe use this instead."

Li Wei handed her the two-star plain two-handed greatsword Zhao Xuanxuan had brought along. He genuinely couldn't stand watching. Was she really that stingy, or had she fallen this far?

"Doesn't feel right in my hands. This is fine."

Liang Yuzhi swung the sapper shovel twice — the blade traced a flower pattern in the air, the cutting edge singing with a sharp, cold sound. Somehow it carried a faint air of mastery. Fine. Do it your way.

Li Wei swapped the greatsword in for his heavy wooden training sword. Li Yue had sewn a fixed clip onto the bottom of his pack specifically for holding swords and blades. It looked cumbersome, but as long as you were agile enough, a little awkwardness didn't matter.

"Santiago, Xavier — you five form a squad. Don't scatter. Stay behind us and stay sharp."

Li Wei called back over his shoulder. Whether or not we're scripted NPCs is beside the point — but you are not dying here.

Though one dead Freeman probably wasn't enough to trigger an Impeachment.

"Yes, my lord!"

They were cooperative, at least.

Li Wei glanced at Zhao Xuanxuan. She didn't look particularly nervous — she had a two-star iron hammer in hand and was staying close behind Liang Yuzhi, clearly eager to prove herself.

Still the same reckless gambler at heart, charging headfirst into things.

But that was also her strength, wasn't it? With a bit more power and better equipment, and the right combat-oriented main title, she could absolutely hold her own.

The streets of Valley Town were fairly wide, the terrain gently rolling — built into the hillside, after all.

Most of the buildings were largely intact. Shattered glass, doors left open in mid-flight, some houses clearly ransacked and looted. Beyond that: rampant weeds, thick moss, and vines that had wrapped entire buildings into lumpy green cocoons — cute-looking, but somehow unsettling.

Liang Yuzhi moved quickly at the front. Zhao Xuanxuan followed close behind, keeping four or five meters of distance.

Li Wei deliberately slowed his pace, keeping the five spear-wielding Freemen about thirty meters back.

Basic tactics — don't let one strike wipe out the whole group.

But after walking about a hundred meters along the town's main street, a shadow passed through Li Wei's mind — a vague, creeping unease.

Yes. That feeling. He'd had it near this town months ago, and it had scared him into turning back immediately. But now he wanted to meet whatever was here face to face.

The next second, a strange voice rang out from ahead.

"You are not welcome here. Leave."

What?

An intelligent creature?

An Ability User?

Li Wei's mind snapped to attention. Up ahead, Liang Yuzhi let out a stream of curses. "What the hell is skulking around pretending to be a ghost? Get out here!"

Her words were like kicking a hornet's nest. A low, droning hum erupted from all directions at once.

Simultaneously, a line of text surfaced silently before the group — including the Freemen.

["You have invaded the domain of the Spider Goddess. The Spider Goddess declares war upon you!"]

Spider Goddess?

Li Wei suddenly recalled the two cat-type Ability Users he'd encountered in the first month — they'd mentioned all sorts of gods. Even the Rat King that had once ruled the town had been called a god.

But the Rat King hadn't been able to speak.

"Everyone, watch out!"

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Before the words were fully out, over a hundred flying spiders the size of washbasins burst from every direction — yes, the same human-spider hybrids Li Wei had almost mistaken for something else that one time. Creatures that used human bodies as walking power sources, riding on top of the host's head, launching themselves as projectiles when a target appeared. Extremely troublesome.

In open terrain they'd be manageable. But in the narrow streets of this town, the creatures had every advantage.

Li Wei only had time to draw and shoot two spiders before he was forced to stow the Three-Star War Bow in his Resource Card. He grabbed a two-star wooden spear and started stabbing furiously at the swarm diving toward him.

The five Freemen behind him were no slouches either. They'd clearly dealt with flying spiders before — no panic, just two-meter two-star iron spears thrusting in disciplined sequence, their coordination surprisingly solid.

The only downside was that the exploding spider corpses sprayed black fluid everywhere — inevitably getting on clothes and faces.

Li Wei immediately switched to his Rat Slayer title, which granted immunity to one tier of Blood Plague.

As for the five Freemen — no rush. He had enough one-star Blood Resistance Potions on him.

In a matter of moments, all hundred-plus flying spiders were dead. No real difficulty — just everyone covered head to toe in black fluid.

"Don't wipe it — rinse with water first."

Li Wei pulled out his water canteen and washed each of the five Freemen's faces and hands in turn, then gave each of them a one-star Blood Resistance Potion.

Only then did he deal with the foul-smelling fluid on his own face and hands. He also took out a cloth and carefully wiped down the Bloodthirsty War Spear, then the hilt of the greatsword.

While he did this, Liang Yuzhi and Zhao Xuanxuan kept watch.

Liang Yuzhi hadn't let a single flying spider get close. Somehow, two compact wrist-mounted crossbows had appeared on her wrists — the kind that could apparently fire in rapid succession. Like a pair of pistols.

Not the most powerful weapon, and not long-range — but genuinely excellent for close-quarters work.

The surroundings fell quiet again. Liang Yuzhi glanced at Li Wei, saw he was ready, and pulled a large tower shield from her Resource Card. She held it in one hand as casually as if she were carrying a chicken.

"Li Wei. Keep up."

"Right."

Li Wei understood. Both he and Liang Yuzhi had assumed this was a straightforward four-star mutated creature. That assumption was clearly wrong. Whatever was here was more complicated than that.

Adai's aerial reconnaissance showed no other enemies in the town — though they might be hiding inside the buildings.

Liang Yuzhi pushed forward at a brisk pace, not stopping along the way, heading straight for the church. The main structure was remarkably well-preserved, though the doors had been forced open — and through them, a gaping black pit was clearly visible.

A lair. Of course there was a lair.

This was going to be complicated.

Li Wei put away the wooden spear and drew the greatsword. It seemed they had no choice.

"I'll go down first. You follow after, keep your distance. Have Adai patrol above — if anything happens, tell me immediately." Liang Yuzhi's expression had grown serious. She hadn't expected a randomly chosen mutated creature to be this involved.

All she could say was that Li Wei had somewhat good luck — not in the way you'd think. The creature seemed calm and dormant now, but the moment the magical radiation shifted, it would be the vanguard of any monster siege.

Li Wei was quietly alarmed too. He glanced back at the five Freemen and thought: you poor bastards. Stay sharp in there — don't end up as cannon fodder.

They descended into the pit with careful deliberation. At the front, Liang Yuzhi raised her hand and a small, oddly magical lamp floated up and began following her automatically, illuminating a five-meter radius around her.

A true powerhouse, through and through.

The five Freemen, to their credit, had tactical headlamps — three-star gear, apparently. That helped considerably.

With these light sources, Li Wei's current vision was nearly as clear as daylight.

The underground cavity had clearly been excavated by something sharp. Some sections had clean, angular cuts — not typical of insect behavior.

The pit was roughly five meters wide and four meters deep, extending further down into the darkness.

Whatever lived here was not small.

The tunnel seemed to have no end, and a familiar foul stench hung in the air — yes, similar to the smell that had clung to the great witch Luna and the black-robed witch Mixi.

"Careful. This one's a spellcaster. We hit the jackpot."

Liang Yuzhi muttered from the front and tossed back several vials. Two-star Blood Resistance Potions — immunity to two tiers of Blood Plague.

Li Wei took one without hesitation, then switched back to his Dog Butcher title.

A little further in, the tunnel leveled out and the space opened up. The stench thickened to something almost physical. Without the two-star Blood Resistance Potion, infection would have set in within moments.

And then, from the floor ahead, humanoid creatures began crawling out of the filth — dozens, then hundreds of them. Their faces still faintly retained the outlines of human features. Without a doubt, these were the missing residents of Valley Town.