Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 325: Mission Change — City-Building Mission

So the "irreversible" part meant receiving the Light of Divine Favor and unlocking the hidden city-building mission. No need to be mysterious about it — he already knew.

Li Wei smiled slightly.

First, he invited Thomas to become the Three-Star Tavern's manager — essentially a nominal title.

Then he formally bound his rare title, Flame Baron, to his current territory.

In that instant, he had the sensation of being seen by something divine. His entire body froze — because a massive beam of light, like a ray from the heavens, descended from somewhere beyond the sky and enveloped him. Several lines of text appeared alongside it.

[Territory-Wide Announcement!]

[Flame Baron Li Wei has received the Light of Divine Favor. He may now construct a Level 2 Temple within his territory. Once a Temple Priest is appointed, his Barony's legitimacy will receive the blessing of the gods!]

[Flame Baron Li Wei has triggered a hidden storyline. His territory's range has expanded. Current maximum: twenty square kilometers. He may now construct a city.]

—

Now I've joined the flood too. Hathaway — I'm waiting for your territory-wide announcement. You're not going to fall that far behind, are you?Li Wei turned to Liang Yuzhi with amusement. "Second Aunt — you seem like you didn't know any of this was coming."

"Don't look at me. I'm not some all-knowing figure. This is the first time I've encountered anything like this. But I do recall something that fits — have you heard of Kakh City? From the rookie missions?"

"Heard of it? I've been there. My storyline identity in the rookie mission was one of Kakh City's heirs."

"Really? No wonder we were so fated to meet. Over sixty years ago, I did my rookie mission in Kakh City too. Which would make me something like your ancestor in the storyline. Anyway, that's beside the point — do you know how Kakh City came to be? Supposedly it was converted from a pioneering mission. I used to wonder about it, but all the relevant information was sealed, not allowed to be disclosed. Even the intelligence dealers in Deadend Alley didn't know. So that's how it works."

"Do your best, Wei. Who knows — maybe this pioneering territory of ours will become something like Kakh City someday. Maybe even as great as Weir City. And your Second Aunt will have ridden your coattails to glory."

Li Wei found himself genuinely moved. There was a sense of witnessing history in the making.

So if his pioneering territory successfully built a city, it would eventually become something like Kakh City — with new players arriving to complete their rookie missions in the area around his city, while his current Freemen became the future native inhabitants?

Of course, many pioneering territories never made it this far — underdeveloped from the start, unable to sustain growth, dying halfway. Out of a hundred pioneering territories, maybe one would succeed.

No wonder information about this was so scarce. Even Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue hadn't connected the dots.

He looked at Liang Yuzhi, who had gone from despondent to suddenly energized and glowing with excitement. Li Wei smiled. You spent two months managing a territory of fewer than 800 people and nearly lost your mind — what would you do with an entire city?

"Second Aunt — I still need you to hold things down here. But you won't have to deal with all the tedious day-to-day details anymore. Just relax, take walks, tend to some flowers, enjoy yourself. I think we should set up a vault for high-value items, managed directly by you. Speaking of which — have you appraised those magical materials we obtained earlier?"

"Already done. Excellent quality. I gave part of them directly to Xuanxuan — she's a solid Enchanting Blacksmith now, already capable of producing enchanted equipment and armor in volume. The rest I'm planning to use for potion formulation. I'll need a potion laboratory. Or more precisely, I might eventually need a Mage Tower. Ha — don't take that seriously. I'm just talking. I'm still just a Caster right now. Becoming a Mage is..."

Liang Yuzhi deflated just as quickly, waving a listless hand at Li Wei and wandering off to clear her head. She couldn't even handle Cross-Border missions right now. Dreaming about becoming a Mage? Too funny.

Li Wei watched her go without comment, then turned to examine his Flame Baron title. Since binding it to the territory, no new attribute bonuses had appeared — only a single line of legal recognition had been added, as if the divine light had stamped it with a seal.

But looking deeper, he found that his original pioneering mission had been changed to a pioneering city-building mission.

[Mission Change: Pioneering Mission → Pioneering City-Building Mission]

[Note: Due to Pioneer Li Wei's exceptional performance, his pioneering territory has met the conditions to trigger a hidden storyline. Mission change has been activated.]

[Mission Description: Over the next two years, attempt to construct a Level 1 or higher city. Note: this is not mandatory. Please consider carefully. If you choose not to build a city, you may continue with the original pioneering mission and settle at the three-year mark. However, once the city-building mission is initiated, it is irreversible and will trigger new storyline changes.]

[Note: To construct a Level 1 city, the territory must be upgraded to Level 5. Specific requirements will be unlocked progressively. Currently unlocked: requirements for Level 2 Territory — construct a Two-Star Temple and select a Priest.]

[Pioneering City-Building Mission Rewards: Divided into base rewards and additional rewards. Base reward: Receive the title of Viscount, recognized by the gods. Under this title, the King's Tax is reduced from 50% to 30%, and the Duke's Tax is reduced from 10% to 5%. An additional 100 square kilometers of territory will also be granted.]

[Additional rewards will be received upon mission completion at settlement.]

[Friendly reminder: Upon completing the pioneering city-building mission, you will automatically advance to Four-Star Lord. Your city territory will become a Four-Star Territory. No separate Four-Star Lord mission activation will be required.]

[Friendly reminder: Even as Flame Viscount, your noble status is only valid within this world and the world where Weir City is located. In all other worlds, you remain a Four-Star Lord under the All-Heavens Lord Alliance. You will still be required to serve periodically — participating in a Cross-Border Mission once every five years, or initiating a Conquest Mission once every five years. During rest periods, you may also visit the Weir City Mission Hall to take on supplementary missions as needed.]

—

"The city-building mission is going to be brutally difficult."

Li Wei turned it over in his mind as he returned to the territory headquarters. Inside, every Freeman who saw him lit up — two months under Liang Yuzhi's iron-fisted rule had left them thoroughly suppressed.

After a warm round of conversation with Nelson, Linus, Benjamin, Santiago, Grant, Mark, and the others, Li Wei brought up the Riverside Knights. Everyone's eyes lit up immediately — eager, enthusiastic. Unfortunately, there were only three slots remaining, and conditions applied.

"We need to build a Two-Star Temple first. Under the witness of the gods, our territory and our people will find lasting stability. Nelson, Linus, Grant — I'm leaving that to you."

Li Wei wasn't in a rush to invest new Riverside Knights. Javier and Seth were needed at Riverside Fortress as the primary defenders — holding the frontier.

Here at the main territory, he needed people to deliver results and demonstrate greater loyalty than before.

The matter of faith was delicate. Especially with outside gods being introduced — that could easily cause serious unrest.

And this was already a post-apocalyptic setting. In a normal world it would be even more volatile.

So Li Wei couldn't push it forward himself. He had to let others handle it.

He spent a long time talking with everyone — making sure each person left the conversation feeling valued and heard. He went around to every group, every combat squad, even the table with the children. Whether or not it was performance, this step was essential. Any space you didn't occupy would be filled by someone else, some other force.

Simple logic.

Over the past two months, Liang Yuzhi had handled things too roughly.

Li Wei couldn't blame her — even with her experience as a former Lord with her own territory, she still hadn't managed it well. She had spent all that time at Riverside Fortress and, aside from fishing, hadn't accomplished much of substance. It had taken Li Wei going there personally, spending over a month, to turn things around.

The Freemen there no longer hated him the way they had. It wasn't just about goodwill — it was about showing people a path forward. Making it clear that effort would be rewarded, that loyalty would be protected.

Riverside Fortress was now transformed. Combat strength and morale both at their peak. The future looked promising.

A shame that he still needed to go grind his Farmer Destiny Grid.

In any case, Li Wei set out high expectations and had a serious sit-down with the three Freeman pillars: Nelson, Linus, and Grant.

Yes — add Javier, and these were the four major families and four major factions currently representing the territory's Freemen.

Nelson was the old guard of the internal affairs faction. His son Santiago, son-in-law Xavier, first wife Ellen, second wife Lisa, and youngest daughter Isabel — all loyal and capable figures in the territory, a force that couldn't be ignored.

Santiago's First Combat Squad, Xavier's Second Combat Squad — important?

Nelson's personally organized internal affairs management group and engineering assessment group — important?

Add Ellen's kitchen crew and Lisa and Isabel's medical group — were those not important?

All of that belonged to the Nelson family.

So even after Liang Yuzhi removed Nelson from the Freeman Administrator position, he remained the de facto administrator. Many things simply couldn't move without him.

So this time, Li Wei made a point of reassuring Nelson. Some problems couldn't be solved with force alone.

The second faction was Linus. He held the nominal title of Freeman Administrator now, but hadn't encroached on any of the Nelson family's territory — and there was genuinely no replacement for what he did.

His faction was the engineering corps. His son Benjamin was the territory's first Four-Star professional — formidable in combat, with enormous potential. After advancing to Four-Star, he had become the undisputed top fighter among the Freemen.

Linus had a group of stubborn, principled engineers and technical talent under him — already subdivided into electrical, plumbing, mechanical, and metallurgy teams, totaling fifty people. Factor in their families and future generations, and this was a significant power base.