Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 260: The Spirit Elixir

In that moment, Li Wei swept his gaze across everyone present, then let it settle on Li Yue. He smiled faintly — his eyes full of indulgent expectation. You said it yourself: full cooperation. Let's see what you can do.

"Little Yue, August is coming up. It should be the calmest, most stable month of the year. There are many things we need to accomplish this month — but I want to hear your thoughts first."

"Brother, I'm not actually that impressive. Second Aunt has the second-highest contributions in the family. I think the first priority this month should be gathering more medicinal herbs and preparing Tier-One and Tier-Two Blood Resistance Potions. Besides Second Aunt, no one else can handle that." Li Yue smiled sweetly, no longer bothering to pretend.

There wasn't much point in pretending anymore. Everything was on the table at this point.

She'd reached an agreement with Li Wei — three months of full cooperation.

And that scheming widow Liang Yuzhi had also reached an agreement with her — full cooperation. So what was there left to say?

"Exactly. That area will need Second Aunt to take the lead."

Li Wei nodded with a smile, though inwardly he thought: Li Yue was being bold. Liang Yuzhi hadn't actually donated any Tier-Two Blood Resistance Potions — if she decided not to cooperate, there was nothing anyone could do about it.

But Liang Yuzhi just gave a knowing look and raised no objection.

"Brother, I think the second priority should be building the city wall — and not just the wall itself, but the entire defensive system. Traps and mechanisms play a huge role in that. I have blueprints for three types of traps. I'll hand them to Sister Xuanxuan right after this — she'll be responsible for building them. The wall itself can be handled by Thomas, Zhang Jinjun, and some Freemen.""Beyond that — unlike conventional warfare, Radiation Zombies can attack from the air and from underground. Starting with the air: we absolutely need to install wire netting above the camp building. That again requires our blacksmith to be at full capacity, which in turn depends on iron ore and coal mining. I suggest having Leon serve as mining captain, leading a group of Freemen to permanently station at Valley Town for extraction."

"Agreed. Continue."

Li Wei nodded. This matched his own thinking.

"In addition to the wire netting, we need to build more powerful siege crossbows — gear-cranked for loading. The speed might be a bit slow, but if we build enough of them, they'll be very effective at suppressing aerial threats when it counts. I'd say build thirty. There are eight hunters among the Freemen — have them operate the crossbows, with others helping to crank. I can take charge of this."

"Once the aerial threat is handled, Brother, we need to focus on underground ambushes. Honestly, those are hard to defend against — that type of mutant creature is usually plant-based, with extremely sharp and powerful root tendrils. The best approach right now is to scout the surrounding hundred kilometers in advance, find those mutant plants, and eliminate them before the radiation storm hits. During the storm, their strength increases dramatically."

"One more thing: we need to produce more lead-zinc alloy for sealing and protecting our important machines and supplies during the radiation storm. Fortunately, there's a lot of that material at the underground base — we've already transported most of it back. The craftsmen among the Freemen can handle cutting and reshaping it. They know how. Brother, you just need to give the order."

"Finally — and this is still important — there's the Flame Duke to the west. Those Ability Users can't be ignored. Brother, I recommend finding a time to take him down."

At that, Li Yue looked at Li Wei. Since the extra difficulty had already been pushed to 180%, there was no reason to hold back — squeeze every advantage out of it.

That was a special boss. The kind of special boss that could easily wipe out the entire team if they weren't careful.

For that reason, every ally needed to be as strong as possible beforehand.

"That's a good suggestion. But I still think this month's focus should be the city wall and the defensive system — especially building the siege crossbows. Also, my boots are a bit tight. Little Yue, when you have time, fix them for me. As for the Flame Duke — we can deal with him next month."

Just when everyone expected Li Wei to agree with all of Li Yue's proposals, he diverged on that final point.

Both Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi were briefly surprised.

Taking down the Flame Duke now, getting everyone battle-hardened, everyone strengthened — that was perfectly reasonable. Was he refusing just to save face? Or what?

Baffling.

Li Wei naturally didn't explain himself. He had his own reasoning.

First, he believed the Frost Duke existed and that the Frost Underground City was real. The centaur had no reason to fabricate that story to deceive him.

Second, both the Frost Duke and the Flame Duke were post-apocalyptic powers that had survived many radiation storms.

Third — to Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi, the Flame Duke was probably just a large Magic Zombie boss, something to be killed and forgotten. But based on the first two points, Li Wei believed the Flame Duke was not that simple.

The centaur and his companions had called the Flame Duke a "Flame Idiot" — but they'd also mentioned that the Flame Duke kept many natural persons captive, partly to cultivate more followers, and partly for splitting to maintain clarity.

In short: this was not a simple existence. Treating native inhabitants as inherently inferior was a serious mistake. If that kind of unearned superiority took root in your thinking, it was a fatal flaw.

And right now, neither Li Yue nor Liang Yuzhi was taking the Flame Duke seriously at all.

Liang Yuzhi had earlier pushed Li Wei to go west and kill the Flame Duke or hire a team of Ability Users to do it.

Now it was Li Yue's turn. Both of them were five-star cross-border veterans — but on this particular matter, Li Wei held a different view.

"One more thing — Xuanxuan, this month please find time to forge a two-handed greatsword for Leon."

"As for me — I'll be going out to fell timber this month to prepare fuel for winter. Of course, I'll also be scouting the area around camp. If I come across any mutant plants, I'll deal with them along the way."

"Alright, that's it. Anyone have anything to add? Speak freely."

Li Wei's tone was relaxed. But no one spoke. There was nothing to add — based on Li Yue's suggestions alone, everyone already had a mountain of work ahead. Did they want even more?

Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi said nothing either. He'd already refused to attack the Flame Duke — what else was there to say?

"Ha, alright then. We'll proceed as discussed. That's our main agenda for this month. Oh — a few more things to add."

"Leon, I'll assign Nelson to you as vice-captain with ten miners. You can be stationed permanently at Valley Town. I'll also give you one electric bus for transport."

"Thomas, you're the construction captain this month. Zhang Jinjun is your vice-captain. You get ten Freemen — Santiago, Xavier, Benjamin, all of them. Young and strong. Put them to good use."

"Also — Little Yue, Second Aunt, you two are light sleepers. Feel free to patrol the camp at night."

With that, Li Wei issued the Monthly Main Tasks. This time they only consumed 300 Contribution points — for two reasons: the overall workload was slightly reduced, and all the monthly tasks were close to camp, the farthest being Valley Town at twenty kilometers. That alone saved considerable management overhead.

Conversely, the larger the territory, the higher the management cost.

Everyone dispersed. Li Wei changed out of his boots and handed them to Li Yue for modification. By now it was clear she had at least one four-star Tailor Card and one four-star Artisan or Blacksmith Card.

Might as well use the resource.

Without boots, he couldn't go out and do much else — so he took the opportunity to whittle some arrow shafts, including crossbow bolt shafts for the siege crossbows. All of it would be needed.

Worth noting: last month, Liang Yuzhi had brought back a considerable number of one-star and even two-star trees. Most were now stored in the underground garage; some had been brought up by Li Wei for manual drying, dehumidification, pest treatment, and shaping.

All of this was second nature to him now, effortless. The only thing missing was a Carpenter Card — if he had one, the Carpenter Destiny Grid would probably start at 20 at minimum.

He worked straight through to the middle of the night. Li Wei finally yawned and was about to go to sleep when Liang Yuzhi appeared with a strange expression, cornered him in the fifth-floor operations room, and in the next instant activated a four-star conspiracy card.

"You took the Spider Demoness's life core?"

Li Wei looked at Liang Yuzhi. This woman, who usually loved to be unreasonable and throw tantrums, was now visibly angry and anxious. If not for the constraints of their situation, she'd probably be ready to kill for it right now.

She was clearly holding herself back with great effort.

So that thing was important to her?

Li Wei stayed silent for a full ten seconds or more. Only when Liang Yuzhi was nearly grinding her teeth and glaring daggers at him did he finally speak. "Your injury earlier was a pretense. What you really wanted was this trophy. You were scheming against me — and against Li Yue at the same time?"

Liang Yuzhi's eyes flickered like ghost flames. But in the end, like a hen that had lost a fight, she surrendered.

"The injury wasn't fake — but wanting the trophy was real. I discovered that spellcasting demoness on the third day of the first month. It would be very useful to me. But at that point, I couldn't take it alone, and I didn't want to work with Li Yue. So I waited and endured — until last month, when I finally racked my brain to trick you into doing it for me."

"I lied to you that raising the extra mission difficulty wasn't a big deal. In reality, it's a very big deal. But for me, being able to scheme against both you and Li Yue at the same time was deeply satisfying. And most importantly — I got what I wanted. That thing is a precious magical material. It can be made into a Spirit Elixir — the kind that permanently increases Spiritual Power when consumed."

"And I don't care at all about the Head of Household position. All I want is to roll a Scholar profession card with a Rare prefix. That Spirit Elixir would help me enormously, because only with sufficiently high Spiritual Power can you identify various items. I thought my plan was foolproof — because without being identified, that thing looks completely unremarkable..."

"But I never imagined you'd actually find it. Damn it all. What did I do to deserve this? So I lost. I lost badly. Can you tell me how you found it?"

"Adai found it. He likes to root around for things to eat. But I'm also curious — why didn't you put it in your Resource Card?" That was what puzzled Li Wei most. Liang Yuzhi's earlier behavior had been baffling.

"Because the moment I put it in my Resource Card — and I'm not the Head of Household — it would trigger the anti-smuggling clause. You know how it is. This kind of Pioneering Mission is like an examination. There are countless eyes watching from outside."

"I see. So you can make the Spirit Elixir? You had a Scholar Card before?" Li Wei suddenly understood.

"That's right. I had a four-star Scholar Card. My reputation may not be great, but I'm not without real skill. This cross-border mission ended in disaster for me — but it wasn't entirely a loss. So, Li Wei — what would it take for you to transfer that thing to me?"