Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 257: Li Yue's Composure Breaks

It was the last day of the month. The last day of July.

The morning sun was bright and cheerful, filtering through the dense canopy and casting dappled patterns on the ground — a peaceful illusion.

At the underground base deep in the northern mountains, Li Yue watched two electric buses roll slowly toward her. Liang Yuzhi had just completed one supply run.

The next transport would depart at ten in the morning and return at one in the afternoon.

The third run would leave at four in the afternoon and return at seven.

But today was the Month-End Summary, so Li Yue and the others would all return together at four. Without quite realizing it, she'd been stationed here for two full months. Leaving now — she probably wouldn't get a chance to come back.

Because her dear brother would never give her another chance to serve as team captain.

Regardless of how many more supplies remained in the underground base to be salvaged, this place had to be temporarily abandoned.

The two electric buses drove up to the stone mine, and Liang Yuzhi hopped out and walked over, all smiles — warm and amiable.

"Little Yue, look what I brought you to eat.""Let me guess — white bread, grilled fish, and mushroom meat soup. Oh, thank you so much, Second Aunt." Li Yue cheered with delight, bouncing like a little girl.

"Come on, let me heat it up for you."

Liang Yuzhi said indulgently, and led Li Yue into the underground base. There was a kitchen here too. Once the food was warmed, she sat in the room and watched Li Yue eat with a fond smile.

"Is it good?"

"Delicious. Thank you, Second Aunt." Li Yue smiled sweetly — and in the next instant, a four-star conspiracy card appeared in her hand. Activated.

The smile stayed on her face. Her eyes held nothing but cold mockery.

The atmosphere flipped completely.

"Yang Widow, you're still as stingy as ever. Holding out, are you? Let me guess — you're holding out for that little chick over there too?"

Li Yue shifted into a more comfortable position, transforming in an instant from a bright-eyed girl into a cold, venomous queen.

Liang Yuzhi didn't care. She plopped down as well, sprawling lazily. "You little trash. I don't give a damn about any of that. I'm not competing for Head of Household — what do I have to be afraid of? I'm waiting for the best offer. You, Li Wei — whoever bids highest, I help. Understand? You little trash."

She cursed freely. Li Yue only smiled coldly. The nickname "Yang Widow" fit perfectly — sharp-tongued, stingy, eccentric, foul-mouthed, a thorough shrew. And that was a reflection and amplification of her true nature.

After all these years, they knew each other too well. Back in the day, the three of them had been called the Three Golden Flowers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

"Sister Yang, you make a fair point. Let's be practical. Old grudges are old grudges. Right now, I just want the Head of Household position. Name your price. A fair price isn't extortion, right? And we're both veterans who made names for ourselves fifty years ago — getting held down by a rookie newcomer doesn't look good for either of us, does it?"

"I'm a widow. I don't give a damn about face. That stuff's worthless."

Liang Yuzhi sneered just as coldly, playing the part of someone who didn't care about anything. But of course she had her own needs. She still leaned toward helping Li Wei and betraying Li Yue — that option gave her more satisfaction.

Unfortunately, that little brat hadn't budged an inch. And for the past few days he'd completely vanished, clearly planning to sweep them both up in the same net. Fine then. She'd given him the chance and he hadn't used it.

Li Yue suddenly said: "Sister Yang, you want to re-roll your Scholar Card, don't you? With a Rare prefix? I can help with that."

"Pfft. What could you possibly do? Don't bother. Next month that little brat will definitely send me out to gather medicinal herbs and mass-produce Blood Resistance Potions — and that's exactly the opportunity I've been waiting for. As for you — that little brat is going to pin you to the city wall and put you to work. Get ready to build walls."

"So then, Sister Yang — why won't you name a price?"

"Five thousand gold coins. For the next three months, I won't make trouble for you, won't betray you. I keep my word — we can put it in writing. Of course, if that little brat offers 5,001 gold coins, I'll absolutely betray you. That's my condition. Take it or leave it."

Liang Yuzhi spoke casually, as if she had Li Yue completely figured out.

Li Yue smiled faintly. "So Sister Yang, you're truly not going to compete for Head of Household? This Pioneering Mission is rare. Once you leave, you'll never get another chance to enter."

"Pfft, none of your business! Give me a straight answer." Liang Yuzhi spat, though inwardly she was bitter too. She'd already handed over her Five-Star Retention Card — what choice did she have? One step behind, always behind. She couldn't seize the Head of Household position, and re-rolling a Rare prefix Scholar Card would take years.

It required enormous time and effort, plus the perfect alignment of circumstances. Everyone knew Rare prefixes were valuable — but they were brutally hard to roll.

"Deal. We can sign an agreement." Li Yue smiled slightly, as if she'd seen right through Liang Yuzhi's thinking. In truth, it wasn't hard to guess. A few days ago, during that night battle, the difficulty had been extremely high and genuinely dangerous. She'd set up several contingency traps to quietly eliminate Liang Yuzhi — truly, if the woman's injuries hadn't healed, she would have died for certain.

But Liang Yuzhi had made it through. At that moment, Li Yue knew: Liang Yuzhi must have paid a significant price to go crawling to Li Wei for protection.

That scheming widow would be sharp-tongued and stingy about everything else — but when it came to the right benefits and sincerity, she wouldn't hold back. Handing over the Five-Star Retention Card was the bare minimum. That little newcomer couldn't be so clueless as to miss that.

As for right now — she'd bet a hundred percent that the little newcomer couldn't produce 5,001 gold coins. Or even if he could, he'd never spend that much to buy three months of loyalty from a widow who was theoretically only staying for three months anyway.

Because to him, Liang Yuzhi wasn't worth that price.

His experience was still too lacking. Over the past few days, he should have proactively reached out to Liang Yuzhi and formed an alliance with her.

Truly — she knew Liang Yuzhi. As long as the newcomer had offered enough, the widow would never have cooperated with her.

So the only thing left to worry about now was: after the walls were built and the Scavenger Camp reached Level 4 with a population increase, would Night Owl send in a heavyweight player?

Li Yue quickly transferred 5,000 gold coins and used a contract item card to formalize the cooperation. This round was basically settled.

"Sister Yang, do you think Night Owl will send Lu Ziming here at the end of August?"

Li Yue asked. Lu Ziming was a five-star player from the Ministry of Internal Affairs who was currently between assignments — a contemporary from fifty years ago, the same rookie cycle as them. He'd nearly won the Rookie King title back then.

"Lu Ziming?"

Liang Yuzhi paused, her expression softening somewhat. She had no particular ill will toward him — actually someone she rather admired.

"Possible — but not very likely. Looking at past Pioneering Missions, the ones that make it to the final circle are usually only five pioneering branches. The other fifteen Pioneering Card holders almost always get wiped out during the first two radiation storms. So in practice, the so-called five-department ranking is really just about the top five."

"This time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs' lead seed player is that young girl — the one Night Owl has high hopes for. Lu Ziming, as a heavyweight backup, is very likely being reserved for her branch. That's the safest play. I'd do the same."

"For now, Li Wei ranks around third — but Night Owl knows you and me all too well, and she's wary of us. So she'll have to factor that in. Rather than sending Lu Ziming here to get ground down in pointless internal conflict with us, it makes far more sense to deploy him to that young girl's branch. Besides, Li Wei has gone off-script this time — and that will be a major reason for Night Owl to write him off."

"Off-script?" Li Yue blinked, visibly surprised.

Liang Yuzhi let out a sly laugh. "I told him that raising the difficulty wasn't a big deal. So he's been missing for the past few days — I'm guessing he went out to push the mission difficulty up. 180% extra difficulty. During the radiation storm, there's a small chance a special boss will appear. This little guy really does have some reckless, go-down-swinging spirit. You think Night Owl would dare send Lu Ziming here under those conditions? Ha!"

Liang Yuzhi laughed brilliantly. Li Yue's expression changed instantly — and the next second she lunged, pinned Liang Yuzhi to the floor, and slapped her across the face. Once. Twice. Three times.

"You absolute—"

She was practically shaking with rage. Yang Widow, you absolute—

Li Yue was trembling.

When they'd taken down this underground base, she had burned the bodies using a precious item specifically to send Li Wei a subtle, coded warning: the mission difficulty absolutely had to be kept under control. Don't be reckless. She'd assumed the little newcomer would understand the significance.

And this widow had gone and sabotaged that exact thing. What the —

Was mission difficulty something you could just casually raise? Was this not pure suicide?

Did he think this was a beginner mission where you could mess around freely? This was the Pioneering Mission — once every ten years. Every department was watching with bloodshot eyes. The fattest, most lucrative Pioneering Mission there was.

It was over. All of it was over.

This was handing over a weakness on a silver platter. She'd bet right now that the upcoming radiation storm would absolutely spawn a special boss.

"Ahahahaha!"

Liang Yuzhi didn't fight back. She just lay on the floor laughing wildly. This was exactly the kind of chaos she loved. Come on — be more violent, more savage.

But Li Yue pulled herself together quickly. What was done was done. Losing her composure wouldn't help. It seemed she'd have to bring back some of the supplies she'd been hiding as well. This widow — damn it all. She should have bought her off earlier in the month.

Because without Liang Yuzhi stirring things up, that little newcomer would never have dared to raise the mission difficulty on his own.

Now the only option was to stand together and weather the storm. At least she still had three months after the radiation storm ended.

And besides — if they could kill the special boss during the radiation storm, that might not be a loss after all...

Li Yue thought this with a heart that was bleeding.

It was the only way to think about it now.