Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 333: Building the Advantage

"Hm?"

When Li Wei was still over three hundred meters from the thicket, something caught his attention. He spotted several conspicuously obvious traces.

No experienced hunter would leave marks like that. Too clumsy.

But perfectly sufficient to fool Adai — or someone like Thomas or Javier.

These Neanderthals really knew how to play mind games. They had pushed the psychological dimension of trap-laying to its absolute limit.

Yes — these were traps designed specifically for Adai.

Over the past weeks, Adai's flight patrol routes had been fixed. But once the territory-wide announcement hit, Li Wei would naturally order Adai to expand his scouting range. Adai would then discover all these unexpected traces in the south bank forest.

Adai might descend to investigate. Or he might relay the information back. And then Li Wei might bring people over to check it out.

If Li Wei hadn't already found their camp over two weeks ago, this would have been the logical sequence of events. He would have walked right into it.

Li Wei thought it through as he approached slowly. With Perception +5, the mountain forest was an open book to him. He could read the Neanderthal hunter's every move as if watching an invisible hand at work.He found thirty-two traps in total.

Outrageous.

Starting with the most obvious, amateurish decoys, then One-Star traps, then Two-Star, and finally Three-Star — each layer interlocking, exploiting human psychology to its fullest.

The final Three-Star trap in particular — without switching to the Tracker title, Li Wei doubted he would have spotted it.

Impressive.

He silently acknowledged it, then began dismantling everything at speed.

The terrifying thing about traps was how hard they were to detect in advance. But once detected, even the most sophisticated Three-Star trap could be taken apart in moments.

Li Wei worked with his Enchanted Dagger — cutting through the problem like a blade through tangled rope. In under fifteen minutes, every trap was dismantled.

[Your understanding of mechanical traps has reached a high level. You have gained 1,000 hunting experience. You can now construct Two-Star traps by hand. Hunter Destiny Grid +1. Current value: 58.]

Remarkable.

Li Wei laughed to himself. What kind of learning method was this?

Learning by reverse-engineering someone else's work?

Well — it worked. These Neanderthals were genuinely excellent teachers.

Ever since binding the Hunter Card, he had been a specialist with a glaring blind spot — a Four-Star Hunter who had never once laid a hunting trap. Who would believe that?

And now, through this unconventional path, he had taught himself without ever formally studying.

He switched back to the Flame Baron title, rested briefly, then set out again. This time he deliberately moved through the valleys — he had developed a taste for dismantling traps.

Of course, there weren't more free lessons waiting. These traps weren't cheap — that Three-Star trap alone was crafted from enchanted hardened steel. The Neanderthals didn't have unlimited resources either.

Or perhaps they simply underestimated him, assuming one round of casualties would be enough to keep him from pushing deeper.

Ha.

Li Wei was in no hurry. He swept valley after valley, ridge after ridge, leaving almost no blind spots.

Each pass gave him a clean five-kilometer-wide reconnaissance strip.

As a gesture of respect, he also left a few deliberately clumsy One-Star and Two-Star traps of his own in the areas he had cleared. Whether they'd do anything, he had no idea.

By around midnight, he had worked his way back to the Neanderthal camp. In the entire process, he hadn't found a single additional trap — but he had laid fourteen of his own, using the ones he had dismantled earlier.

The Neanderthal camp was completely dark. Even from a hilltop, nothing was visible.

Li Wei didn't push closer. The situation had changed — these Neanderthals would be on higher alert now. And he was tired.

He found a sheltered spot out of the wind, pulled out his blanket and Scout Cloak, and settled in for a comfortable sleep. But first — Adai had to be released. With strict orders: no flying. Stay right here and stand watch. Try to wander off and see what happens.

The night passed without incident.

At dawn, Li Wei woke and observed the camp again. A few faint wisps of smoke drifted into the air — morning cooking. But the numbers had dropped. Only five Neanderthals remained. The others had vanished.

"Based on what I know so far: these Neanderthals are formidable, and they entered through some unknown route — definitely not through the spatial rift the Frost Duke tore open. But they will certainly infiltrate the Frost Duke's territory and use various methods to strengthen him and his Ability User forces."

"In other words, they still don't want to operate openly. Working from the shadows is their preference. And they won't abandon their interest in me — but unless forced, they won't personally attack my two bases. That would expose them. Far safer to push the Frost Duke to send his Ability User Legion."

"The Frost Duke, as a native of this world, has irreplaceable legal legitimacy..."

Li Wei thought it through, watching, waiting. The five Neanderthals finished their morning meal. Two headed east together. Two headed west together. One stayed behind.

Interesting — they were being more cautious now. Moving in pairs. Were the western pair going to check whether anything had been caught in their traps?

Li Wei closed his eyes, withdrew his gaze, and let the data and conclusions settle in his mind.

The two heading east — ignore them. The one staying at camp — ignore him. But the two heading west would, after traveling about five more kilometers, inevitably find the traces he had left the night before.

He had moved fast last night and hadn't bothered to conceal his tracks carefully.

Once they found those traces, everything would change. He had seen how sharp and cunning these Neanderthals were. They were clearly elite.

So — should he take a shortcut and ambush them now?

He could manage it. But the noise of the fight would definitely alert the one staying at camp.

Li Wei had been patient this long not to kill one or two and let the others escape. He wanted to take them all at once.

Which meant — only Adai could do this.

"Adai — fly low from here, fast, to a point about thirty kilometers away. There's a large rock outcrop on a ridge there. Rise from that point and circle in a search pattern. The timing: between 300 and 350 counts from now."

"Caw?"

Adai looked deeply aggrieved. He was hungry.

"Go! You're playing the role of a hungry crow. There's a nest of mutant rabbits in that outcrop — go hunt. Don't worry about anything else. You're just hungry. After the hunt, go to another outcrop to eat — stay within thirty kilometers. Give those two Neanderthals a chance to try to ambush you. Go now — you only have 320 counts left."

Li Wei gave the rapid-fire order. Adai was now smart enough to count to 500 — easy work for him. He just liked to act put-upon.

He sent Adai off and took a deep breath, then turned and headed in a completely different direction.

Adai's appearance would change the two Neanderthals' plans.

From their perspective, Adai never ventured deep into the south bank — especially not fifty or sixty kilometers into the mountains. But if he appeared there today, it meant the traps they had left yesterday had worked. Some human leader had been angered and sent this dangerous crow to scout.

And this might be the prelude to a large-scale human search of the forest.

So they would be excited. Ready to hunt in the forest. They couldn't attack the fortress directly — but they could make the humans feel Neanderthal power out here in the wilderness.

Of course, they might also be suspicious. Either way, they wouldn't stick to their original valley route. Most likely they'd try to shoot Adai down.

As a Five-Star hunting pet, Adai's presence had been a constant source of pressure for them — evident from the fact that their camp was built deep in a valley, surrounded by dense forest, making it nearly impossible for even Adai to spot from above.

A few minutes later, Adai appeared exactly as planned — over a rock cliff about thirty kilometers away, circling twice, snatching a mutant rabbit, and flying north with complete nonchalance.

A natural performance.

He had been visible for less than twenty seconds. But the timing was perfect — the two Neanderthals caught just a glimpse of him.

Sure enough, after a brief hesitation, they changed course and moved into a different valley. And they activated some kind of magical tool — their forms became faint and indistinct, harder to track.

Li Wei nearly lost them.

They were genuinely going after Adai.

Which was exactly what Li Wei had wanted.

What other way was there to draw them off their fixed route, far enough away to avoid alerting the one guarding the camp?

Whether or not they actually caught Adai was irrelevant.

In that moment, Li Wei used his knowledge of the terrain to loop wide in a completely different direction.

When he had closed to within ten kilometers of Adai, he relaxed. From this point, he and Adai were effectively linked — he could access Adai's vision at any time and recall him instantly.

Right now, Adai was perched on a tall rock cliff, enjoying his breakfast. The two Neanderthals had vanished — Li Wei had completely lost track of them.

They were skilled hunters too. They might have already guessed that Adai's owner was nearby — perhaps even leading a search team through the forest, with Adai as the forward scout.

In the Neanderthals' minds, they were the hunters hidden in the shadows. The situation was under their control.

That belief was important.

They would make predictions based on it. And Li Wei could predict their predictions.

That was his advantage right now.

And building that advantage — that was the entire point of the Scout profession.

It was also the reward for the hard work of the past weeks, and for the attitude of giving everything he had.

Victory was never an accident.