Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 359: The Headaches of an Internal Affairs Novice

[Congratulations — you have successfully established the faith of the gods within your territory and cleverly displayed a divine miracle. Your Prestige Card has been upgraded to Level 3. Place it within the temple to cover a radius of one hundred kilometers. All territory Freemen operating within this range will receive Prestige Card information support at any time and any place, and will be able to view their own attributes and combat status.]

[Congratulations — the Level 3 Prestige Card will now unlock the Internal Affairs Module. Please select whether to activate it. Note: once activated, this cannot be reversed. Explanation: the Internal Affairs Module will provide more detailed listings of various virtual data within the territory, such as morale data that factually exists but cannot be directly measured.]

[Note: the Internal Affairs Module is not one hundred percent accurate. It provides approximate data with a correctness rate of roughly 90% to 95%. It can act as an internal affairs steward, partially resolving the difficulty of governing without experienced internal affairs talent.]

[Note: the Internal Affairs Module will simulate and generate internal affairs data chains based on territory residents' dynamic behavior, static behavior, and conversations over the past week, and will issue relevant internal affairs tasks accordingly. However, the drawback is that after running for a period of time — especially beyond ten years — it may trigger certain incidents and generate bugs.]

[Note: even without activating the Internal Affairs Module, the specific effects of the Level 3 Prestige Card will not be impacted. However, in that case, you will need to arrange capable and experienced internal affairs talent to manage the territory. People who have found faith tend to be more energetic and creative. At the same time, that very devout faith will inevitably lead the temple system to intervene in secular governance and power struggles. The signs may not be visible in the short term — but trust in the magic of time.]

[Friendly reminder: Freemen resurrected by the temple will automatically receive the special title of Paladin. While this is only an honorary title, their influence among the populace is enormous — sometimes even exceeding that of you, the lord. In the future, your descendants may be required to visit the temple and receive the blessing of the High Priest before they can take the lord's seat.]

[Friendly reminder: founding a territory is difficult, but its subsequent development and management is even more important — and far more complex. Trust that every cause has an effect. Whatever seeds are planted now will eventually bear fruit.]

—

Huh?

This batch of notifications had taken a rather unexpected turn.Li Wei rubbed his chin, suddenly realizing he had indeed unleashed an invisible beast. He had wanted to use faith to reshape the hearts of his people — but faith would inevitably turn around and use those same hearts to bite back at him.

That was almost certain.

This wasn't a game where you could build a church or a temple and just flip to the next page. This was something deeply complex and deeply real.

Even with his limited knowledge, Li Wei could see it was going to be thorny.

Of course, if his territory was going to collapse in seventy or eighty years anyway, there was nothing to worry about.

But who was to say that many of those collapsed territories hadn't fallen precisely because of something like this?

'So how does Weir City handle it? All those Freeman descendants, all those second-generation, third-generation, fourth-generation players... wait — Weir City's Lord Academy?'

Li Wei was starting to understand. That might be one of the manifestations of cause and effect.

He had a bit of a headache.

Honestly, being a free-roaming mercenary sounded better.

He grumbled internally — though only briefly. What was he thinking? A territory had its thousand annoyances, but being a mercenary would have ten thousand.

For one thing, without a territory, he couldn't support a team.

He now had a Caster Witch, a Dark Moon Knight, a Dulling stone golem, and a Blood Burning vanguard commander. A complete, balanced team — Night Owl herself would be envious.

'Right, so — should I activate this Internal Affairs Module?'

Li Wei mulled it over, then immediately went to consult Second Aunt. When in doubt, Second Aunt saves the day.

"Internal Affairs Module? What's that? My territory's temple never even had a priest — it was one-star from start to finish. I never had any of your fancy nonsense. My precious nephew, go play in the mud by yourself. Second Aunt is very busy right now — don't interrupt my train of thought!"

Bang.

Door slammed in his face.

Second Aunt had gone completely off the deep end. Li Yue probably wouldn't have an answer either.

So Li Wei went to consult Zhao Xuanxuan. She was also swamped, currently with Benjamin, Santiago, Grant, and Xavier selecting new cavalry candidates. Before, these soldiers had all looked sharp — their training and combat performance were solid, and they could work up a head of steam when needed — but there had always been something missing.

Now it was clear what that was. Every one of them was bursting with energy, eyes bright and alive.

They had found faith. Their souls had come home.

There was a look about them — like they owned the place, like they were ready to give their lives at any moment.

For most people that would be fine. But Li Wei had Perception +6, and what he saw made his skin crawl.

Because he genuinely didn't have that many resurrection slots.

"Huh? You're asking me something this deep?"

Zhao Xuanxuan looked completely lost.

"Don't laugh at me. You were once a corporate executive worth thirty million, graduated from a top university, a top student. I was just a little office worker making six thousand a month. Who's the deep one here?"

Li Wei physically dragged Zhao Xuanxuan into a small room and earnestly asked for her advice, which left her both amused and exasperated.

"You, Li Wei — you've got rich man's disease. You want everything and then some. You're already standing at a height most people can't even look up to. What more do you want? Why are you worrying about things that won't happen for decades? Do you actually think you're Li Wei the Great, First of His Name? In my view it's all the same — whether it's the Internal Affairs Module or letting the Nelson, Linus, Javier, and Grant families rise to power, the trade-offs are unavoidable either way."

"There's never been an eternal truth in this world, and there's never been an ancestral law that never changes. A policy from three hundred years ago might become the rope that strangles you three hundred years later. Are you smarter than the founder of the Ming Dynasty?"

"Trust me — don't overthink it. Worst case, copy Weir City. Worst case, if the territory collapses, just build another one. We've got your back. You'll be fine. Go get 'em!"

Whoosh — Zhao Xuanxuan was gone.

Damn it.

What kind of advice was that? Since when did Zhao the Gambler become Zhao the Motivational Speaker?

Fine. He was being too anxious about it. Internal affairs genuinely wasn't his strong suit.

After thinking it over for a long time, Li Wei decided not to rush into activating the Internal Affairs Module. He'd wait a bit longer.

After that, he went back, took a long comfortable bath, and slept. The next morning he woke to find Adai crouched at the foot of his bed, staring at him with a grave expression.

Damn — that was actually a little intimidating. Adai had really come into his own. The aura of dominance just radiated off him now.

"So you didn't find the missing centaur count? Interesting. Never mind — everything goes back to normal. Keep up the daily runs between Riverside Fortress and here, and keep a close eye on both banks of the river. Also be careful — Brother Dai is famous now, and loaded. Watch out for those Neanderthals trying to take you down like a boss fight."

"Caw! Caw!"

"What? You want to come with me? No, no — I'm leaving you here to create the illusion that I'm still in the territory. If you disappear, the enemy will know everything."

Li Wei shook his head. He was planning to set out tomorrow to find Hathaway — but somehow Adai already knew about it.

"Caw! Caw!"

Adai was being stubborn — and making threats. Even if Li Wei didn't bring him, he'd follow from the air. Try catching him up there.

Damn it.

Li Wei ground his teeth in frustration, but in the end let out a long sigh.

Adai didn't understand anything — this was definitely Second Aunt's doing. Li Yue had almost certainly given the same instructions.

Compared to the territory, compared to anything else, they absolutely would not let Li Wei go off alone. Even now that he was preparing to upgrade and strengthen himself.

In their eyes, if it came to it, they'd rather abandon Riverside Fortress than lose Li Wei.

Well — fine. He'd listen.

He sent Adai away, then sat in thought for a moment before pulling out a Black Iron Token and upgrading his three-star Woodcutter Card to four-star.

Just that one level meant future rare prefix farming back at the main base would cost twice as much gold — but that was nothing.

The whole process went smoothly.

His Woodcutter Destiny Grid automatically rose to 64, and he received the standard five free attribute points.

Without hesitation, Li Wei put all five into Defense — from 32 to 37. Just 3 points away from the second-tier awakening.

Then came the familiar hunger —

He ate, exercised, adapted. About half a day later everything stabilized. Smooth sailing — mainly because all his other attributes had already hit second-tier awakening, so this one followed naturally.

Next, Li Wei spent three Bronze Tokens to synthesize a two-star Life Card, a two-star Stamina Card, and a two-star Agility Card. These were the gaps he'd been missing. With these three, two-star attribute cards would no longer benefit him — he'd need to move on to three-star cards.

He activated and consumed all three cards immediately.

His base Life went from 300 to 330. Base Stamina went from 440 to 470. Base Agility went from 42 to 45.

With equipment bonuses and the Flame Baron title's enhancement, those three stats reached 430, 570, and 54 respectively — impressively strong.

The Life stat alone was worth celebrating. A maximum lifespan of 150 years — absolutely delightful. He could call himself a young man even at eighty.

570 Stamina meant Li Wei could run three hundred kilometers in twelve hours in full gear without needing food or water along the way.

54 Agility meant his short burst speed could approach 80 kilometers per hour — for brief intervals only, of course.

But in critical moments — especially when dodging a volley of arrows — that was extremely useful.

Combined with Perception +6, he didn't need to maintain that top speed constantly. He just needed to make tiny, precise dynamic adjustments in fractions of a second.

He might even be able to dodge rifle bullets at fifty meters. Not that he'd ever tested it.

In any case, this was the advantage of the Scout — Ranger system.

If you can't beat them, outrun them.

"That'll do for now. Upgrading the three-star Scout Card to four-star still needs more scouting experience."

After that, Li Wei dragged Second Aunt out of her seclusion once more to enchant his equipment. With a professional caster on hand, the process was simple — it only consumed two units of mana to fully restore the enchantment durability on all his weapons and gear from head to toe. The only disappointment was that Second Aunt hadn't yet cracked the Sequence 3 magic, and the Magic Crest gifted by Weir Duke remained unsolved.

And so, on the morning of the second day of May, Li Wei set out with Adai, driving an electric bus, heading off to find an ally.

First stop: Base 349, to give Thomas his dividend share.