Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 362: Ron's Choice

Li Wei didn't linger in the ruined town. Even though it had once been a pioneer team's starting point, there was nothing of value left — even their dropped Pioneering Cards had long since been taken.

He continued in his planned direction, still primarily hunting and scavenging mutant creatures along the way.

Two days later, he stumbled upon another pioneer's scavenger camp.

This one was clearly different. Though it had been long abandoned, it was obvious that it had been developed for quite some time — probably destroyed by Frost Duke's Ability User Legion a few months ago.

He could see clearly that this scavenger camp had also been built around a ruined town as its foundation. It hadn't constructed a fortress as solid as Scar's, but it had used a three-story building as its core to build a reasonably sturdy and well-defended stronghold.

The outer perimeter showed a Level 2 wall that had been breached in multiple places. Inside the walls, about two hectares of cultivated farmland were visible — last year they had likely been green with wheat; this year they were overgrown with weeds.

Signs of battle were everywhere — scattered arrows, shattered crossbow bolts, all over the place.

Occasionally he spotted a few bleached bones — the remains of Freemen.

Li Wei stepped inside the breached fortress. More bones, rotting food, broken tools. In the basement, a small nuclear power plant was still running — but its external lead-alloy shielding had been destroyed. Without maintenance, it would fail and explode at the latest when this year's Radiation Storm arrived.

Frost Duke's Ability User Legion clearly knew exactly what they were doing.Li Wei surveyed the entire pioneering territory inside and out, thought it over, and began cleaning up. He restacked the collapsed sections, found unused cement in the underground storage room, mixed it with water, and poured it to repair the damaged areas.

He also performed basic maintenance on the small nuclear power plant. Not because his skills were particularly advanced — but because this world's nuclear technology had developed to a sophisticated level. These small plants used modular assembly and disassembly for maintenance, and as long as they weren't exposed to chaotic magical particles, they were quite safe.

Li Wei's repairs focused mainly on the external lead-alloy protective casing, which the Ability Users had damaged, and the power supply wiring.

He hadn't known any of this before, but after watching Linus and the others work, he'd picked it up long ago.

He spent two full days on the work — repaired the fortress, reconnected the wiring, gave the fallen defenders a proper burial, and even fixed the two heavy crossbows on top of the fortress that had been smashed apart.

He used components cut from three-star quality timber.

Li Wei wasn't doing this because he planned to establish a forward base 750 kilometers from home — that wasn't realistic.

He simply thought: if he found Hathaway on this trip and she agreed to relocate, a group of people and horses would need a waypoint along the route.

And if it turned out to be unnecessary, no harm done.

Beyond that, the base's underground garage contained three electric buses in relatively good condition — just with slashed tires.

But the power cells and motors, after charging, still worked.

Ha!

Not bad at all.

So Li Wei pulled out the power cells, packed them into a Resource Card, and set them aside for potential future use.

Finally, after sealing the fortress completely from the outside, he got back on the road. Sixteen days of the month had already passed — he needed to pick up the pace.

Continuing from that base, he encountered far fewer mutant creatures along the way. They had all been wiped out.

After pushing another hundred kilometers or so, Li Wei finally spotted a roving Ability User patrol squad under Frost Duke's command.

Total strength: fifty. Thirty centaur cavalry, ten light-armored half-dogs, eight light-armored half-cats, and two half-goat figures that appeared to be casters.

All four-legged, fast-moving, highly mobile — in this semi-plains, semi-hilly terrain, they were genuinely difficult to deal with.

Seeing them immediately reminded Li Wei of the three squads Zhao Xuanxuan had been leading. They had used the same high-mobility approach to roam the wilderness north of the Great Bridge — unable to seize the bridge itself, forced to watch the enemy build a fortress on the south bank, but keeping firm control of the northern bank's territory.

Of course, that situation might have changed by now.

Once Neanderthal crossers got involved, the difficulty ramped up considerably.

But Li Wei had discussed this with Zhao Xuanxuan and consulted Li Yue about it earlier.

They'd said it wasn't a major problem. The Northern Fortress was nearly complete, so there was no longer a need to seal off the area north of the bridge. As long as they patrolled near the Northern Fortress and rang the alarm at the critical moment, Second Aunt could come out to intercept — and the enemy wasn't stupid enough to walk into that.

So the focus going forward was building the Southern Fortress.

There was also another important reason: training the new cavalry was a priority. They'd use their own mana well as a base, training within a twenty-kilometer radius — essentially running out the clock.

The enemy was stalling. So were they.

The decisive battles would all happen elsewhere.

In any case, that was the strategy Li Wei had shared with Liang Yuzhi, Li Yue, and even Zhao Xuanxuan.

So back to the present — spotting a highly mobile Ability User patrol squad in this area was a strong indicator that somewhere nearby, a pioneer was actively resisting Frost Duke.

Who was it?

Socrates?

Ron?

Or Hathaway?

Li Wei didn't tip his hand. He began a wide circling reconnaissance — as long as the circle was large enough, no ambush or trap could escape detection.

After two days of scouting a three-hundred-kilometer radius around the territory, he arrived at a rather absurd conclusion: this pioneering lord appeared to have reached some kind of peace with Frost Duke's Ability User Legion.

For example, within a hundred-kilometer radius of the territory, the Freemen could still come and go freely — working, gathering, farming — but they never left that zone.

And the Ability User patrol squads never entered that zone either.

There were only two patrol squads in total, and they seemed to be performing a monitoring and surveillance function around this pioneering territory.

'Who is this? How did they manage that?'

Curiosity piqued, Li Wei approached the territory under cover of night. It was actually quite well developed — two small mining operations outside the perimeter, and about thirty hectares of cultivated farmland. At a glance, it was a pleasant sight.

But when he came within fifty kilometers of the territory, an alert immediately triggered. Two Pioneering Cards detecting each other — a warning and a location ping.

[Warning: you are attempting to approach the territory of Pioneer No. 4, Ron. Please advance no further unless the other party issues a friendly invitation.]

Huh?

Ron.

Someone he knew.

A message quickly appeared.

[Pioneer Ron invites you to enter his territory. This invitation is considered a friendly invitation. Neither party may attack or scheme against the other. The inviting party must guarantee the safety of the invited party; the invited party must likewise guarantee they will take no action harmful to the inviting party. Guarantor: Weir Duke.]

Good. That worked.

Li Wei stepped across the boundary line. The alerts stopped immediately. He walked forward for a short while, and then six cavalry riders came riding out at speed. The lead rider was Ron. The remaining five were all tough, elite warriors — powerful presences, fully equipped, every one of them a match for Benjamin.

Clearly, these were knights of Ron's knight order.

But there were only five of them. The knight order title had never been upgraded.

"Li Wei — you're well! I knew it was you!"

Ron was laughing from a distance, with the genuine delight of an old friend reunited.

"Master Ron, it's been a while. You look better than ever. I didn't expect to find you so quickly." Li Wei returned the bow with a smile.

"The road here wasn't easy, I imagine."

Ron dismounted, his smile gradually fading.

"Not particularly easy, no. I even spotted two Ability User patrol squads outside your territory. Do you need me to take them out?" Li Wei offered cheerfully.

"I'd advise against it. To be honest — I've reached an agreement with Frost Duke. I won't expand my territory or build a city. In exchange, he's agreed to cede a hundred-kilometer radius around my territory to me. As long as no one steps outside that boundary, we all leave each other alone."

"Huh? That actually works?"

Li Wei blinked.

Ron gave a quiet smile.

"Why wouldn't it? If you hadn't accelerated things and triggered the city-building mission, Frost Duke would never have been provoked. He could have been the third-year final boss — or not. Last year, I even visited his domain and built up a Friendly reputation in Frost City. If you hadn't stirred things up, convincing Frost Duke to join the All-Heavens Lord Alliance wouldn't have been out of the question."

"Now — Frost Duke has genuinely become the third-year final boss. Convincing him to join the Alliance is off the table. But I had the foundation I built last year, so I negotiated a verbal agreement with him. In three years, my territory will still be a three-star territory — ten square kilometers of registered land, plus a free zone of a hundred-kilometer radius as a bonus. What's wrong with that?"

"You eat one bite at a time. People grow one step at a time. Stride too big and you'll pull something. I think being a Baron is perfectly fine."

"But you — do you really think you can laugh last? Frost Duke has made you his final boss target now. Once he finishes with Zhao Kewu, Socrates, and Hathaway, he'll concentrate everything and swallow you whole."

Ron had an unusual way of looking at things.

"Then how do you guarantee that at the last moment, Frost Duke won't take the opportunity to wipe out your territory too? If he can take down my territory, there's no reason he can't take yours."

Li Wei asked in return.