Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 272: The Duke's Last Stand

In that moment, Li Yue was using herself as bait — luring the Flame Duke into striking first.

She had no choice. There was no other way.

So she didn't dodge. She barely had time to stow her Four-Star heavy bow before she took the Flame Duke's blow head-on.

In that instant, a mysterious light flared across Li Yue's body and vanished — nullifying the Flame Duke's terrifying strike entirely.

Some kind of item, similar to the Magic Crest on Li Wei's Noble Crest Armor — something capable of negating a killing blow.

Almost simultaneously, Li Wei loosed the Three-Star War Bow he had been holding at full draw. Three armor-piercing arrows screamed through the air, locked onto the Flame Duke's third life core.

There was nowhere to run. It was right there — his life core, and the very heart of his most powerful attack.

But the moment the three arrows struck, the Flame Duke suddenly materialized in human form. The arrows buried themselves in the lower right side of his chest — yet not a single drop of blood fell. A cold, contemptuous smile curled at the corner of his mouth. He had predicted Li Wei's prediction. Because even now, he had maintained his composure, his reason still intact.

He had seen through the three of them. And if he had seen through it, he could turn it against them.

"Thwang!""Thud — thud!"

The contemptuous smile was still on the Flame Duke's face — but now two steel-piercing bolts the thickness of a child's forearm jutted from his chest. No — those were siege crossbow bolts.

The ones who fired them: Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi.

Yes. The Flame Duke had assumed Li Wei was the main attacker. What he hadn't realized was that Li Wei was the bait.

Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi, who had appeared to be the decoys, were the real strike.

The siege crossbows had been stored in their Resource Cards, pre-loaded and ready — pulled out in an instant, fired in an instant, with devastating force.

Especially now that Li Wei had roughly pinpointed the Flame Duke's third life core, making the shot that much easier to land.

"You... you've won. Fifteen years in the apocalypse. I held on for fifteen years. I thought I'd found the path to evolution. I thought I would become a god..." He let out a low, broken laugh. "I never imagined it would end like this... I'm so tired. Once a year, like surviving a tribulation, every single time. I wanted so badly to let go, to give up entirely — but there was one chain holding me back. Because I had to remember, every moment, that I was still human... But now... heh. I can finally put it down. I'm so tired. But it's no longer my concern..."

"Gah — gah — gah..."

"ROAR — ROAR — ROAR!"

The Flame Duke staggered and toppled from the seven-story rooftop, crashing to the ground below with a thunderous boom that cratered the pavement.

But something deeply wrong was already happening to his body.

It was as though he had split into two beings — no, one person and one zombie.

The human part of him kept murmuring — recounting the past fifteen years, his suffering, his obsession slowly dissolving away.

The zombie part let out low, guttural roars that grew more savage with every passing second, until it had completely overwhelmed and torn apart the human side of him.

His humanity died.

In the next instant, dark flames erupted across the Flame Duke's body. Under their influence, the surrounding radiation fog was drawn toward him at a terrifying speed, and his body began to mutate — wildly, chaotically, without any order.

Human heads began sprouting from his flesh, one after another, like grotesque mushrooms.

At the same time, the Flame Duke zombie turned and ran, absorbing the radiation fog as it went.

"This is bad — he's gone full zombie!"

Liang Yuzhi's cry had barely left her mouth when Li Wei and Li Yue were already drawing and firing. In the span of ten seconds, Li Wei loosed sixteen arrows; Li Yue fired nineteen.

The arrow storm didn't just blow apart every sprouting head — it turned the Flame Duke zombie into a pincushion.

It was the fastest option available. They were on the seventh-floor rooftop while the zombie was below, and it was moving too fast — without a suppressing volley, there was no way to pin it down.

Li Wei and Li Yue each burned through more than half their stamina, but they successfully kept the zombie in place long enough to buy Liang Yuzhi an opening.

She had already leapt down from the building. The moment the arrow storm stopped, she charged in and drove the spear home — she had taken Li Wei's Bloodthirsty War Spear.

Because only a Four-Star weapon — sharp, enchanted — could deal meaningful penetrating damage to the zombie duke.

And even then, it was barely a dent.

The zombie duke at this stage was like solid iron from head to toe. Li Wei's Three-Star War Bow and Li Yue's Four-Star heavy bow were each firing with siege crossbow force, yet the arrows sank less than ten centimeters into its flesh — and only because the zombie was mid-mutation, sprouting new heads, that any penetration was possible at all.

In truth, after those ten seconds, the zombie duke had developed something like an iron-body defense at its peak — arrows could no longer wound it.

"HAAAH!"

After driving the spear in with everything she had, Liang Yuzhi immediately sensed something was wrong. She yanked the Bloodthirsty War Spear free, stepped back, and with every ounce of strength she possessed, gripped the spear in both hands and drove it straight into the zombie's tailbone in a full-force thrust.

The Bloodthirsty War Spear sank a full meter deep — and was essentially spent. It only had three armor-piercing uses to begin with.

"ROAR!"

The zombie duke felt no pain. It wasn't even slowed. Its power was surging with every second it absorbed more radiation fog.

It spun around — like a beast with blazing eyes — and a gust of wind preceded it as it slammed Liang Yuzhi to the ground.

With her reflexes and speed, she couldn't dodge it.

The next instant, the zombie duke's maw split open like a shark's and lunged for Liang Yuzhi's head.

At the last possible moment, Li Yue arrived. Her blue greatsword flashed — a cross-slash that left a glowing afterimage in the air.

The zombie duke's head was severed.

But in the very next instant, a barbed stinger like a scorpion's tail swung silently from the zombie's rear and drove clean through Li Yue, launching her dozens of meters away.

Even with its head cut off, it didn't flinch.

"Hah!"

Liang Yuzhi exploded into action, both hands wielding the Enchanted Sapper Shovel — but she could only scrape the surface of the zombie duke's hide. She had no weapon capable of breaking through its defense.

"Whoosh — whoosh — whoosh!"

The zombie duke slowly grew a new head while simultaneously driving its long barbed stinger at Liang Yuzhi in a relentless series of thrusts, forcing her into a cold sweat. All she could do was barely hold it off. A Five-Star powerhouse — reduced to this. Truly crippled.

She had been too arrogant. If she had just spent the past few months forging herself a proper weapon...

Fortunately, Li Wei had finally circled around.

He hadn't charged in alongside Li Yue — partly because his base stats were slightly lower and he was a touch slower, but mainly because he had activated the Tracker title and was trying to locate the zombie duke's remaining two life cores.

Without finding the life cores, everything else was pointless.

But since the zombie duke had begun absorbing the radiation fog and hardened its body like iron, the life cores had become even more deeply hidden — nearly impossible to detect even with Li Wei's Perception boosted by three points. No leads whatsoever.

It was only thanks to Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi throwing themselves into close combat that the life cores showed the faintest ripple of activity — and even that was barely enough.

Especially when he switched to the Rat Slayer title — the radiation fog's damage to him became brutal.

But the moment Li Wei caught even a trace of a life core's pulse, he didn't hesitate. He accelerated, sprinted — bleeding from every orifice, his lungs and throat feeling like someone had poured in a bucket of concentrated acid.

The agony hit like a collapsing mountain.

But it couldn't stop him. In the blink of an eye he was behind the zombie duke, and he brought the blade down in one massive cleave — from the back of its skull straight down to its tailbone.

A single vertical line.

Earlier, Liang Yuzhi had actually sensed the approximate location of the life core, but she hadn't had enough time to properly lock it down. It was like the difference between a rushed glance and a careful scan — two entirely different results.

Unless you had a decisive advantage.

As a result, even though she had driven the spear into the zombie's tailbone, the life core had shifted and slipped away.

"BOOM!"

Like a sledgehammer striking iron, Li Wei's twelve-kilogram two-handed heavy sword proved its worth in that moment — not just because of its weight, but because it had been upgraded once already, making it a Four-Star weapon with a special property.

Even though the zombie duke's body was as hard as iron, Li Wei's single blow split it clean in two.

Its fourth life core was destroyed.

But there was still a fifth.

Unfortunately, Li Wei had nothing left. He had no time to follow up — and it was already too late. In the next instant, the fifth life core detonated from within the bisected corpse, exploding into hundreds, thousands of fragments. Some of those fragments transformed into flame bats and tried to flee, but they dissolved into the radiation fog almost immediately.

Then, from every direction, came eerie shrieks. The Flame Duke's shattered body fragments, under the influence of the radiation fog, mutated into all manner of grotesque creatures — growing, devouring, merging with the Level 4 Ability Users and tearing each other apart.

Visibly, whirlpools formed across the city, drawing in vast quantities of the radiation fog. The streets that had been smothered began to see daylight again.

But in their place, nine Level 5 Radiation Zombies now roamed the city.

The one piece of good news: they were all ordinary-grade.

"Xiao Yue! Xiao Yue!"

Liang Yuzhi frantically dragged the badly wounded Li Yue back to Li Wei, who covered their retreat as they ducked into a building — only for two Level 5 Radiation Zombies to come charging in right behind them.

Nothing to be said. Li Wei and Liang Yuzhi dug deep into their remaining reserves and each took one.

Against these ordinary Level 5 Radiation Zombies, the gap between Liang Yuzhi and Li Wei became apparent. She could hold her own against one with her battered Enchanted Sapper Shovel, even managing brief moments of pressure.

Li Wei, on the other hand, was running on empty — his stamina spent, his base stats insufficient, and Li Yue right behind him with nowhere to retreat. He couldn't maneuver freely. In the end he was forced to rely on the Magic Crest of his Noble Crest Armor twice to survive killing blows before he could cut the zombie down.

He rushed to Li Yue — barely breathing, closer to death than life — and pressed her against the golden light of a Universal Gold Card. Li Wei's face was drenched in blood and sweat, an absolute mess.

This fight had been brutal. He had come terrifyingly close to losing.

In moments, the Universal Gold Card's light faded. Li Yue, who had nearly had a gaping hole blown through her torso, finally opened her eyes slowly. She looked at Li Wei with a complicated expression, then gently reached up and wiped the blood from his face. The next instant she sprang to her feet, grabbed Li Wei's two-handed heavy sword, and in a flash snatched a head right out of Liang Yuzhi's hands.

She didn't even glance at the Universal Gold Card slowly forming nearby — just hurled the two-handed heavy sword back to Li Wei. In that moment she looked reborn through blood, radiant and fierce.

"Brother, congratulations. There's no Rookie King title in the Pioneering Mission, but I believe — after today's battle — your name will be known by everyone in the Duchy of Veil. And I'm sure a certain someone is going to regret it."

It was a bit of an odd thing to say, but in the heat of battle the bar for what counted as odd dropped considerably, so it didn't really matter.

Li Yue probably just felt compelled to say it.

She even raised a middle finger at the sky. Who was that for?

It went without saying.

She pulled out her Four-Star heavy bow, darted forward, and charged back into the fight. Liang Yuzhi gave the Universal Gold Card a light touch to top off her condition, then followed her out.

Their moment of slaughter had arrived.

In the distance, at the central tower, the sounds of battle and roaring had erupted into chaos — more Level 5 Radiation Zombies were converging on it.

But as Li Yue had said, the hardest part was over.

The rewards of this battle were waiting.

Indeed — the dust was settling.

Li Wei let out a quiet breath and reached out to collect two Universal Gold Cards, converting them into two Silver-tier Clearance Tokens. Yes — Level 5 Universal Gold Cards.

Outside, seven more Universal Gold Cards were waiting to be collected.

He didn't even need to fight anymore.

Because Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi finally had something easy to cut through.

Thomas, Leon, Zhao Xuanxuan, Zhang Jinjun, and He Yuying — the five of them had used the terrain to hold and kill two ordinary Level 5 Radiation Zombies. By the time they finished, Li Yue had already solo-killed three, and Liang Yuzhi had solo-killed two.

All in under three minutes.

Li Wei's only job was to walk behind them and pick up Universal Gold Cards.

The first four he converted entirely into Silver Clearance Tokens. The fifth he kept for himself — using it to upgrade the Three-Star War Bow and Three-Star Dagger. The sixth he gave to Liang Yuzhi; she needed a proper weapon.

What annoyed Li Wei was that she immediately used it to upgrade that battered Two-Star Enchanted Sapper Shovel — though it did reach Four-Star, so it was passable.

The seventh went to Leon, to further upgrade his title and two-handed greatsword, bringing it to a Four-Star enchanted blade with a special property.

The eighth went to Zhao Xuanxuan, to upgrade her title and Two-Star iron hammer, bringing it to a Four-Star enchanted hammer with a special property.

The last one went to Thomas — to upgrade his title and his Three-Star plain Refined Steel Tower Shield, taking it all the way to a Four-Star Enchanted Heavy Shield with a special property. Yes, Li Wei threw in the shield upgrade as well.

With that, Thomas, Leon, and Zhao Xuanxuan had all reached the level of core players within the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

It didn't matter whether they had coasted through this battle or contributed significantly — this was simply how Li Wei chose to distribute the rewards. Not only because they were allies on his side, but because it was the greatest acknowledgment he could give for four months of hard, dedicated work.

The Scavenger Camp had come this far because of the three of them.

They deserved to be rewarded generously.