Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 248: Authority in Hand

This was unmistakably the Gambler's Sword.

Li Wei had to hand it to her.

It really had been made for him. It looked absurdly cumbersome and heavy — but the moment you gripped it, it just felt right.

He swung it a few times, liking it more with every swing. He got to work immediately, carving the hilt and other fittings himself.

By the time night fell, Zhao Xuanxuan finally stirred awake. Spiritual Power consumption and recovery — simple as that.

Li Wei had already finished the remaining components of the Two-Handed Heavy Sword, including the hilt. Nothing complicated about it.

He didn't even plan to sharpen the blade. What a joke — a twenty-five-jin block of refined steel. Anyone who said it had no damage output was welcome to test that claim.

"Li Wei, what do you think?"

"It's great. Thank you. Come on, let's go eat."

Li Wei nodded. Zhao Xuanxuan was about to activate a One-Star Conspiracy Card — she seemed to have something to say — but Li Wei stopped her with a look. A One-Star Conspiracy Card was pointless here.Not needing a Conspiracy Card — that was the highest level.

On the way back to the camp building, they ran into Thomas, who was also returning. The man looked like a ghost — but this time he activated a Three-Star Conspiracy Card.

"Li Wei, don't you think these Freemen are a little too sharp? This afternoon they actually came and tried to trigger a monthly task through me. I'm asking — did someone on our end leak something?"

"Right, right — this afternoon, that Freeman Jenny was talking strangely, kept trying to get information out of me. Thomas, you didn't let her get anywhere, did you?" Zhao Xuanxuan said urgently. That was exactly what she'd wanted to say earlier.

"Please. I barely spoke ten sentences to these Freemen over the past month. But the underground base side — Li Yue, Liang Yuzhi, Leon, Zhang Jinjun — I can't speak for them."

"It's fine. I have it handled. Don't worry about it. Xuanxuan, take a few days to rest and recover your strength — just in case. Thomas, you too — ease up a bit. There might be a fight before month's end."

"You're worried the Flame Duke's Ability Users will hit us?" Thomas asked. He'd actually guessed it.

"Yes. It's been nearly fifty days with no movement at all. That's very abnormal. Also, Thomas — lend me 100 gold coins." Li Wei said calmly. He now had the Black Iron Token and his farming experience had broken 10,000 points — the only remaining condition was 100 gold coins.

That wasn't a small amount. Zhao Xuanxuan definitely didn't have it.

Thomas should be fine.

Sure enough, Thomas transferred 100 gold coins without hesitation.

After that, the three of them said nothing more, walking back to the camp building in silence. Thomas went to wash up, Zhao Xuanxuan headed straight upstairs, and only Li Wei stayed outside — feigning surprise at the wooden boards and iron bars on the windows that had, of course, been installed a long time ago.

At that moment, Freeman Jenny and a group of Freemen hurried over to greet him. Even if it was all theater, the show had to go on.

"Jenny, you did excellent work." Li Wei smiled warmly, sweeping his gaze across the dozen or so Freemen and accurately calling out the names of five of them — because only those five had actually participated in reinforcing and repairing the windows.

Then he produced six one-star Blood Resistance Potions and distributed them to the five workers and Jenny. The other Freemen who'd tried to piggyback on the task were simply ignored.

"You are the most hardworking young ladies and gentlemen I've seen in this camp. Take this — it's your reward."

With that, Li Wei reached over and took the weapons from each of the five, then solemnly returned them. These were the one-star or two-star plain weapons Zhao Xuanxuan had forged for them. Did they think they'd gotten those for free?

Every one-star plain weapon Zhao Xuanxuan forged earned her 10 extra Contribution points. Every two-star plain weapon earned 20. The coke and steel used weren't free.

Rules were rules. Today, he was teaching them how rules worked.

Or if anyone had a problem with that, they were welcome to rebel.

He left the Freemen behind — their expressions complicated and strange — and went straight up to the fourth floor. Before long, a full dinner was served, and the building's electric lights came on one by one, powered by the solar energy collected during the day.

After dinner, Li Wei headed downstairs for his routine night patrol. At the bottom of the stairs, he encountered Nelson the old man and a few fully armed Freemen.

"Esteemed lord, is there something we can help you with?"

After the customary bow and greeting, the old man had no choice but to deliver the scripted line Li Wei had been waiting to hear. Ritual mattered. This was the very clear signal Li Wei had been transmitting: unless you follow this format, you don't get to trigger hidden quests.

And over the course of an afternoon, these Freemen should have figured out what the Blood Resistance Potions did. Anyone who took one would have received a system notification — that was the convenience of Profession Cards.

So in an apocalyptic world saturated with terrifying magical radiation — if you didn't want to become a Magic Zombie, what choice did you have?

Or you could try your luck with the stingy, eccentric Widow Liang.

Interesting thought — the widow Yang and Liang Yuzhi were both widows. Some kind of coincidence?

The thought flashed past. Li Wei looked at Nelson with warm approval. "Nelson, you really are an energetic and clever young man. Yes — I've been worried about something lately. Our village has only just begun to develop, and there are many areas still lacking. But our weapons are far too few — especially long-range, high-power bows and crossbows. We need them for defense. If mutated creatures attack, we need some capacity to fight back."

Li Wei knew perfectly well: over the past forty-plus days, Nelson's group of Freemen had already secretly built two formidable siege crossbows. Under normal conditions, three average adult men were needed to draw and operate one — though gears could substitute. Maximum range: five hundred meters. Firepower comparable to Li Wei's two-star sniper armor-piercing arrows.

And they were currently planning to build a third.

Yes — they were doing it on the sly. Quite covertly.

What lord, upon finding out, wouldn't be alarmed?

Though bound by the rules, these Freemen couldn't actually do something like string Li Wei up from a lamppost — but what if some desperate individual tried anyway?

So it really wasn't Li Wei's fault for racking his brain to teach them the rules.

In this moment, he could see a flash of panic cross Nelson's face and the faces of the others. Ha. So you know that secretly building siege crossbows is the kind of thing that invites suspicion. You're not stupid.

And right now — did they dare say "Sorry, my lord, we can't do that"?

If they actually said that, Li Wei would genuinely stop issuing them Blood Resistance Potions from that day forward.

The All-Heavens Lord Alliance did have minimum humanitarian requirements — no wanton killing. But if the radiation concentration in their bodies kept climbing and they eventually contracted second-tier Blood Plague, that truly wasn't his problem.

This world had more than one natural person survival base. There were more natural persons than just this group.

Play games if you want.

And if any of them showed the slightest disrespect, he had corresponding punishments ready.

Not being allowed to kill indiscriminately didn't mean punishment was off the table. Want to test the weight of the law?

"Esteemed lord, we can take this burden off your hands. Though we'll need the assistance of that skilled blacksmith — with her help, we can certainly build powerful siege crossbows with gear-driven mechanisms."

Nelson spoke quickly. He was a clever young man — he knew what choice to make in this moment. Set aside the infuriating, terrifying, despairing conspiracy theories for now. Get through this immediate hurdle first.

"Excellent. Nelson, I'll be waiting for your good news. Here's the arrangement: for every siege crossbow you build, I'll give you a generous reward. And of course, my blacksmith will fully cooperate with you."

Li Wei said it with satisfaction. He'd already decided on the reward: one siege crossbow, five one-star Blood Resistance Potions. And while he was at it, he should have Zhao Xuanxuan start building even more powerful giant crossbows. Now that they had a castle and a wall, having no long-range attack capability was a real problem — and the ammunition left over from the underground base was nearly gone.

The night passed without incident. The next morning, when he came back for breakfast, he found Nelson and several others standing at the entrance carrying a siege crossbow that weighed at least twenty-five kilograms. Impressive efficiency.

Nothing much to say — Li Wei exchanged a few pleasantries and handed Nelson five one-star Blood Resistance Potions. Divide them yourself. The others haven't built enough affection with me to trigger tasks — figure out what to do about that yourselves.

In that moment, the expressions of Nelson and the others nearly shifted. Only five portions, and only for him — this was divide-and-conquer. This was scheming.

But they were powerless.

The Blood Resistance Potions were their T-virus serum. Especially after some of them had already taken one and discovered, to their shock, that in less than two months since leaving the underground base, the radiation levels in their bodies had already climbed to a dangerous threshold.

At that point, even if Nelson — clever and strategic as he was — wanted to do something, he couldn't stop the other Freemen from seeking their own path to safety.

And so, over the course of the following day, Li Wei smoothly triggered over twenty tasks with the Freemen.

The content of the tasks didn't matter — but the format had to be standard, and the ritual had to be complete.

The tasks covered: reinforcing and completing the building's basement, reorganizing and renovating the various rooms of the camp building, manufacturing iron spike traps, building a rat and insect breeding facility, constructing a sewage pipe system, building a septic tank and drainage line, digging a deep well and installing both manual and electric pumping mechanisms, installing solar panels, small electric power tools, and lighting fixtures.

Essentially covering every piece of work the Freemen had done over the past forty-plus days.

And Li Wei distributed two hundred Blood Resistance Potions in one go.

Everyone was satisfied. Li Wei was satisfied too — because it had finally taken effect.