Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 254: The Frost Duke

After just two seconds, Li Wei decisively deactivated the Tracker title. The economical choice — he'd only burned 1.2 Spiritual Power and 12 Stamina, but gained the most critical intelligence.

He hadn't found the mutant cabbage's life core, though. Was that a fundamental difference between mutant plants and mutant animals?

Li Wei thought for a few seconds, then slowly withdrew to five hundred meters away — but didn't leave. He felt he could win this fight. He hadn't found the life core, but he had spotted a weakness and a critical vulnerability.

He had Adai continue watching the mutant cabbage closely while he unsheathed the two-handed heavy sword Zhao Xuanxuan had forged for him, switched to the Bear Hunter title to bring Strength to 30, and started chopping down a large, leafy tree.

It worked beautifully. No edge sharpened, no axe-head shape — and the Scout Card's third talent, Weapon Mastery, hadn't even activated yet. But this twelve-and-a-half-kilogram two-handed heavy sword was still sharper and more effective than any axe.

Because raw power trumps everything.

Thirty points of Strength — roughly equivalent to Li Wei being able to hoist a 150-kilogram sack and stride briskly, or hurl it like a discus.

So a twelve-and-a-half-kilogram two-handed sword? He could spin it one-handed. Dual-wielded, the effect would be devastating.

And his third profession was Woodcutter — Three-Star Woodcutter — which dealt 30% bonus damage to all wooden objects or wood itself.

A few casual swings, and a tree that would take two arms to encircle had lost a third of its girth. A few more chops from the other side, a light kick — crack — and the tree crashed to the ground.Less than two minutes, start to finish.

More impressive than any lumberjack.

The sound of the falling tree was loud. Li Wei quickly slipped behind another tree and listened. He checked through Adai's eyes. Several minutes passed — the mutant cabbage showed no reaction.

It couldn't hear.

So even after mutation, it still followed certain plant behaviors. As long as nothing came close, it wouldn't trigger an attack. That was very good news.

Li Wei smiled faintly. Then the plan was simple: chop.

He set a five-hundred-meter radius as his boundary and began systematically felling every tree within it — not a single one spared. He wasn't going to give the mutant cabbage any chance to regenerate.

It was a massive undertaking. But Li Wei, possessed by the spirit of some legendary lumberjack, worked through the night — rumble after rumble — until he had genuinely cleared a five-hundred-meter dead zone.

Then he hauled all the felled timber away, creating a wide-open battlefield. Easy to fight in, easy to escape from.

Interestingly, within two hundred meters of the mutant cabbage, there hadn't been a single tree to begin with. Not even a weed.

Bare as a desert.

So it was probably very powerful. Five stars?

But his third profession — Three-Star Woodcutter — should counter it.

After that, Li Wei jogged two kilometers away, found a safe spot, and slept. Adai stood watch. Good old Adai.

The night passed without incident.

The next morning, Li Wei woke refreshed, drank some water, ate something, then waited another half hour before preparing to engage the boss. But the moment Adai took flight, something was wrong. Ability Users.

What the —

He hadn't spent half the night working just to have someone else swoop in and steal the prize.

Li Wei didn't move. He had Adai climb to seven or eight hundred meters and observe carefully. At that altitude, details were blurry — but the basics were clear. Five Ability Users, coming from further south. They were now hiding behind the trees Li Wei had felled, staring at the bare battlefield with obvious suspicion.

But it was also fairly clear what they were after: the mutant cabbage.

Li Wei thought it over for a long time. In the end, he decided to take the risk. Five Ability Users — so what? Was he not an Ability User himself?

Maybe they could even work together.

He stowed the Three-Star War Bow in his Resource Card, pretended he hadn't noticed the five Ability Users, and appeared from a different direction. It was early morning, bright and sunny, visibility excellent — even at several hundred meters, he'd be spotted.

So while he was still standing there staring suspiciously at the bare gully, the five Ability Users had already circled out of the tree line toward him — their tactical movement was actually fairly professional.

Li Wei feigned ignorance, but Adai had already tracked their every move with perfect clarity.

Hmm. Bit of a dilemma. Should he strike first?

They were already within a hundred meters behind him. Close enough for a proper performance.

Whoosh — Li Wei spun around, two-handed heavy sword in hand, and charged.

"Stop! Friend, we mean no harm!"

The Ability Users shouted, but simultaneously fell back into combat formation. Ha — actually pretty professional.

Li Wei stopped behind a large tree and called out in a low, firm voice: "Who are you? I'm a wilderness mercenary working for the Flame Duke. Several of my companions went missing in this area — does that have anything to do with you?"

"Friend! Relax — I think I know what happened. Your companions were probably swallowed by the mutant man-eating flower. Please calm down. We're wilderness mercenaries working for the Frost Duke, here on a bounty to kill this man-eating flower. If you have no objections, I think we can cooperate."

As the speaker finished, all five Ability Users stepped into view — openly, without hesitation.

They were quite a sight.

The one speaking looked like a centaur. Beside him was a massively built man who resembled a fat pig. Third was a blue-skinned snake woman — no clothing, her entire body covered in blue scales, like a great serpent.

Fourth was a ram-headed man — otherwise perfectly normal in build, but with two enormous spiral horns growing from his head, like something out of a demon story.

Fifth looked completely normal — until he breathed, at which point a massive air sac ballooned out from beneath his chin, like a toad puffing up.

Overall, compared to the Flame Duke's subordinates, these five were far less human in appearance.

Yet somehow, Li Wei felt their thinking was sharper.

The five Ability Users were studying Li Wei in turn. After a moment, the toad one suddenly let out a croak, slapped his belly, and laughed: "I'll bet he's not one of the Flame Lunatic's self-detonating idiots. This one's a natural person."

"Exactly — who the hell does the Flame Duke think he is? A bunch of nobody cats and dogs trying to ride the coattails of our Frost Duke's reputation. A mob that loses its mind the moment it gets too big — and they actually take themselves seriously." The fat pig man laughed as well, dripping with contempt.

The blue snake woman flicked a two-foot tongue at Li Wei.

"Friend, the Flame Duke's people don't have anyone this calm. Tell us — what backwater are you from, natural person?"

These Ability Users really were different. Genuinely rational. Li Wei thought for a moment, then simply nodded. "You're right — I'm not a wilderness mercenary for the Flame Duke. I'm also half a natural person, more or less. So — what do you want to do? Split me between you?"

"Ha! He even knows about splitting — clearly spent some time around the Flame Idiot's crowd. Don't worry. We may not look great, but we're reasonable people. The Flame Idiot captures natural persons partly to cultivate little idiots, and partly for splitting. You probably know the drawback — absorb too much radiation and your mind starts to go. Splitting with a natural person temporarily restores clarity. Honestly, it's people like that who've ruined the reputation of Ability Users everywhere."

"But with us, you can relax. First — the Frost Duke's Frost Underground City provides excellent shielding from radiation storms. And did I mention the Frost Underground City is home to over a hundred thousand natural persons?"

"Second — the Frost Duke has already found a way to balance power and sanity. The result is what you see before you. By channeling and restructuring the radiation energy rather than letting it disturb the soul, we let it grow and mutate naturally."

"So yes, we've become a centaur, an exploding pig, a ram-head, a snake woman, and a toad spirit — but our minds work exactly like normal people's."

"Of course, when a radiation storm hits, we still retreat to the Frost Underground City, several hundred meters underground, to ride it out. Otherwise we'd go mad too. We only come out to explore when the storm passes. Does that make sense to you?"

"It does. In that case, we can cooperate." Li Wei nodded. What they said was coherent and well-reasoned — a world apart from the Flame Duke's brain-dead followers.

"No, no, no — we still can't cooperate just yet. We need to measure the radiation level in your body first. If it exceeds a certain danger threshold, we'll have to bring you in — because among our many missions out here, one is to rescue natural persons and eliminate Ability User zombies. We need to confirm you're not an Ability User zombie. Many of them can hold a normal conversation — but the moment they attack, they reveal themselves. Brother, we hope you'll cooperate."

"Because on this planet right now, the only one who still represents the future of humanity is the great Frost Duke."

"So please understand — this is a great cause."

"And if I refuse?"

"You have the right to refuse. But capturing you for testing and treatment is also our right. Move!"

What the —

They really didn't waste time.

Mid-sentence, the toad spirit dropped into a crouch and launched himself forward in a single bound. Simultaneously, the blue snake woman vanished from where she stood.

The ram-headed man began murmuring — apparently casting some kind of spell. They were genuinely confident.

Li Wei immediately fell back, turned, and ran. It looked simple — but his speed and agility were explosive, leaving both the toad spirit and the snake woman grasping at air.

"Watch out — this one's an Agility build!"