Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 358: The Ancient Mages

The deal with Night Owl was done — no drama, and if anything, it seemed like they'd come out ahead.

Outside the territory walls, fifty three-star warhorses arrived shortly after. Zhao Xuanxuan immediately went to handle the matter. With these horses added to the ten Li Yue had purchased earlier, forming a full cavalry company was no problem at all.

Even without cavalry cards, it didn't matter. Twelve hours a day strapped to a horse, three months straight — that was guaranteed to produce at least a basic cavalry card. And if someone had real talent and aptitude for it, a rare cavalry card wasn't out of the question either.

"Little Wei — thank you."

Li Yue suddenly spoke.

"Aunt Yue, what are you thanking me for? That's out of nowhere. How about you cook me a good meal to celebrate instead?"

Li Wei laughed and walked to the window. His mood was good right now. May sunlight poured in from outside — he could see the vivid green of the distant mountains, the clear blue sky, and the occasional flash of sacred light from the direction of the temple. Everything was getting better.

Li Yue didn't explain, and Li Wei played dumb and didn't ask.

There was no need. They were a team — practically family. Why keep score? And this time, Second Aunt had a genuine need. If he didn't help, who would?

"What happens going forward — what if everyone starts thinking they can be resurrected after dying, and they all charge into battle without a shred of fear? What will you do then?" Li Yue came to stand beside him at the window, but shifted the subject."Simple. I drag the body to the temple and stage a judgment ceremony. The gods declare that while the person was brave, they had committed some past sin — so they cannot be resurrected, but their soul has been redeemed. Something like that. Just make it up as I go. Aunt Yue, what they need isn't resurrection — it's peace of mind."

"Like an anchor. There has to be something to ground all the things that are vague and slipping away. That's how people put down roots. I think that's actually the whole point of the All-Heavens Temple — a lot of people are sharp, they can see through things, and they don't need it. But most people can't see through it. Without somewhere for the spirit and the soul to rest, something always feels missing. Like life isn't quite whole."

"Speaking of which — is there a limit on how many times we players can be resurrected?"

"There is. For me and your Second Aunt, one more death and we'd probably go back home as vegetables. I was born in 1940. When I go back, there won't be any family left. So if that day ever comes, Little Wei — you make the call for me. Just leave me here. Even as a vegetable, getting to sit in the sun every day wouldn't be so bad."

Li Yue said it lightly, but there was a quiet sadness beneath the words.

"Aunt Yue, it won't come to that. Our team is growing stronger every day. Don't worry — I've got you."

Li Yue just shook her head with a smile. "Even if we don't die in battle, we'll age and die naturally in about sixty years. I look young now because of genetic awakening — it delayed my cellular aging. Right now I'm roughly equivalent to an ordinary woman in her thirties or forties. But I'll keep aging eventually, unless I complete a full-attribute third-tier awakening. That could push the lifespan to around two hundred years —"

"Never mind, I'm ruining the mood. Little Wei, I'm heading to Riverside Fortress now to hold things down. I'll take fifteen warhorses with me and hand them to Javier and the others for cavalry training — they don't need to come here for that."

"The main base here should be fine. Xuanxuan is already a capable vanguard commander. Especially once Benjamin, Santiago, Grant, and Xavier come back from resurrection — those three squads of sixty people, and the entire territory's Freemen, will undergo a complete transformation in spirit."

"The Great Bridge Fortress to the east — we can't stop it. But they won't be able to run rampant on the north bank either. So maintaining the current situation, and building a Southern Fortress somewhere near the riverbank south of the territory, is very necessary."

"Once the mana well is upgraded to its maximum three-star level, the coverage radius expands to twenty kilometers. Both the northern and southern fortresses will fall within that range. The territory's core foundation will be complete."

"In the future we could even follow that mana coverage radius and build one fortress to the east and one to the west, creating a safe zone with a diameter of forty kilometers. Do you know what Weir City looked like in its earliest days? It started with exactly this kind of structure..."

As Li Yue spoke, a light finally came into her eyes — full of longing.

Because even if this territory never reached Weir City's level, it would certainly reach Kakh City's level. And likely surpass it.

"Aunt Yue, there's no rush. I still have some questions I'd like to ask. Actually — let's eat first. Even an emperor doesn't send hungry soldiers into battle."

Li Wei pulled her downstairs to the small dining room on the first floor. The duty cook was already bustling about, and in moments a full spread was laid out. He thought about calling Liang Yuzhi down, but Li Yue stopped him.

"Leave her. The magic of knowledge beats the magic of food. Ask what you want to ask — what I can tell you, I will. What I can't, asking won't help. Just so you know, we've only unlocked Level 3 NG here."

"Alright, Aunt Yue — earlier, Second Aunt said that with two hundred units of mana, she could knock Frost Duke's teeth out. Is that true?"

Li Wei asked with genuine curiosity. This wasn't something to exaggerate — a misjudgment here could be strategically catastrophic.

"It's true. With a mana well in hand, it's equivalent to half a mage tower — it amplifies her power to the level of a Tier 3 caster. The only limiting factor is whether the mana can sustain it. And in this world, the current maximum difficulty is six-star-plus. Only in very exceptional circumstances does a brief tidal surge occur, pushing difficulty to seven-star-minus."

"That's determined by the invasion density of chaotic magic. This planet originally had only one incomplete mage tower crash into it, and that alone triggered this world's apocalypse. Frost Duke happened to seize the ruins of that mage tower and built his power from there. Everything in the pioneering storyline flows from that."

"We have no intention of going to war with Frost Duke — peaceful plunder is our baseline. But Frost Duke doesn't see it that way. So he used the mage tower to contact the servants of the ancient mages — the Barbarians. In any case, it's a tangled mess. You'll come to understand it gradually. I can't say more right now."

"I see. Those Neanderthals — the Barbarians — are they actually Neanderthals? As in, the species?"

"Technically, yes. We're Homo sapiens; they're Neanderthals. But why the ancient mages chose them as servants while discarding us — I don't know."

"Also, while these Barbarians use the same combat system as us, they don't belong to the All-Heavens Lord Alliance. In short — they're the guardians; we're the invaders."

"The specific logic and sequence of events goes like this: the ancient mages did something — no one knows exactly what — that caused the magical source to spiral out of control, contaminating countless worlds. Then the All-Heavens Lord Alliance moved in for salvage plunder. Of course, we're not the only organization doing this — there are many others, though I've never encountered members of any other group. Because the number of worlds contaminated and eroded by chaotic magic is simply staggering."

"As for the Barbarians — they seem to have been swept out by the magical source going out of control. That's the best way I can understand it. They think we're locusts, swarming everywhere. But they're the same — swarming everywhere too."

"How long this war has been going on, I don't know. It's still raging fiercely. We players stumbled onto this battlefield without fully understanding it. Cross-border missions are infiltration operations into worlds the enemy controls. Conquest missions are full assaults into enemy-controlled worlds. There are also garrison missions, exploration missions, and apparently above six-star there are even All-Heavens Expedition missions — but none of that concerns us. We're small players."

"Complete the cross-border mission every five years, develop yourself, grow the territory, and wait for the territory to run its course. That's it. Any more questions?"

"Actually, yes — one more. Like you said before, the territory we carve out in this world isn't bound by other constraints. If we defeat Frost Duke and occupy land, however much we hold is ours. But then — doesn't that mean the ten square kilometers I bought with a hundred Universal Gold Cards was wasted?"

This had been nagging at Li Wei for a while.

If he eventually incorporated Riverside Fortress into his territory, the initial twenty square kilometers would look insignificant.

"How is that a waste? That's the legal basis for ownership. It's like buying a house back home — don't you pay taxes? Don't you register it? Don't you get a deed?"

"With all of that, the house is truly yours. Bluntly speaking — even if the mission ends in three years and you've taken Riverside Fortress and successfully built a city, in the Kingdom's noble registry, what officially belongs to you will always be only those twenty square kilometers. If you go bankrupt in the future and need to sell the territory, you can only sell those twenty square kilometers."

"Honestly, I'd like to see you acquire another ten square kilometers through that method."

"Alright, that's enough. Let's eat. I need to focus on sharpening myself after this battle — it exposed too many of my weaknesses. I can't be dragging you down."

Li Yue finished speaking, picked up her chopsticks, and the two of them ate heartily. When they were full and satisfied, she gave a bright smile and left. The knot in her heart — the nightmare — seemed to have loosened a little more.

Watching Li Yue's retreating figure, Li Wei felt good too. Everything was finally falling into place. The territory had the loyalty of its people, the financial foundation, and now even a capable general and advisor to hold the line independently. The real phase of rapid development was just beginning.

In the distance, another cheer rang out. Another hero had been resurrected.

One more left. It was time to introduce the concept of judgment and soul redemption.

Honestly, if Xavier hadn't been genuinely impressive, Li Wei wouldn't have bothered resurrecting him. Contrast was what gave meaning.

Wait — he'd forgotten to ask one more thing. How do you increase the temple's resurrection slots? Aunt Yue? Hey, hey — you walk fast.

And just then, as Xavier's resurrection completed, before Li Wei could even draft something creative to say, a stream of notifications suddenly appeared.