novelraw Chapter 414: In the Name of the Gods
Chapter 414: In the Name of the Gods
It sounds pretty good, and this is a long-term business transaction. Even if the profits aren't high, one cannot be picky about territory development.
"Alright, I agree. However, I might need to understand the relevant detailed rules and regulations."
Li Wei didn't refuse.
"That goes without saying. Actually, the next round of Novice Missions in the Weir Province won't officially begin until March or April of next year, so there is still ample time. When the time comes, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will dispatch specialized personnel to negotiate and sign the contract with you."
"But speaking of this, there is one more matter I'd like to ask for Lord Li Wei's help with. Because I will be going to execute a Cross-Border Mission in the summer of next year, I will be unable to continue serving as the Chief Internal Affairs Officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. If Lord Li Wei is willing, I can recommend Your Lordship to the higher-ups to take up the post of Chief Internal Affairs Officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs."
"Ha, I'll pass on this." Li Wei refused without even thinking about it. He had absolutely zero interest in going to work at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but Hathaway might be interested.
"So it is, I understand. Then, Lord Li Wei, the Task Settlement belonging to the fourth stage concludes here. Next is the fifth stage of the Task Settlement. A Temple Priest will come to preside over the settlement for you."
After Chu Wushuang bowed respectfully, he departed on his own. This actually made Li Wei sigh with emotion that this big bro truly spoke with great manners and politeness.
However, the fifth stage of the Task Settlement?
Alright then. Li Wei turned his head, looking towards the quiet Temple. As a result, very soon, a burst of footsteps actually transmitted from behind him. Turning his head to look, he saw an elderly man, dressed in linen clothes and hale and hearty in spirit, walking over with vigorous strides. The emblem on his chest proved that he was a One-Star Temple Priest. Moreover, he was unfamiliar, so a newly arrived one?Incorrect, incorrect. There is something wrong with this guy. Or rather, a Temple Priest capable of presiding over the fifth stage of the Task Settlement for him couldn't possibly be an ordinary Temple Priest.
"Lord Li Wei, good day!"
This elderly priest arrived before Li Wei. After smiling and bowing in greeting, he spoke directly. "Your Lordship, over the past period of one year and eight months, your faith in the Gods of All Heavens has been pure and unwavering. You firmly believe in the divine oracles of the Gods without a single doubt. You led the Freemen to find meaning in life, to find a resting place for their souls. Then, are you willing to, in the name of the Gods, initiate a Five-Star Lord Mission?"
"What? What kind of joke are you playing?"
Li Wei was heavily startled and stunned. But that elderly priest didn't answer, merely smiling as he looked at him.
This was truly far too bizarre.
"So, this is the only method to initiate a Five-Star Lord Mission?" Li Wei changed his phrasing.
"Not so, Lord Li Wei. This is merely the most difficult method, and also the most convenient shortcut if you wish to ascend to the peak and become a King. When you complete a Five-Star Lord Mission 'In the Name of the Gods', you will successfully detach from the Locke Kingdom. When you complete a Six-Star Lord Mission 'In the Name of the Gods', you can even directly establish a country."
"But Gul'dan, what is the cost?"
This line of dialogue popped into Li Wei's mind involuntarily.
"The cost is naturally immense. Moreover, once the choice is made, there is no such thing as retreating. Once you fail, your body will be smashed to pieces and your bones ground to dust. Furthermore, all those who follow you, including every single Freeman, will be transformed into corpses amidst the yellow sands alongside it. But once successful, you shall obtain a hundredfold the profits."
"Apologies, I'm not interested."
"It doesn't matter. One day, Your Lordship will be interested."
The elderly priest smiled again, and just like that, walked straight through Li Wei's body. Upon turning back to look, the person was already gone.
"Motherfucker, what the hell? What 'In the Name of the Gods' mission? Only those guys whose territories are poorly managed and on the verge of bankruptcy would be willing to risk it all for a gamble, right?"
Li Wei spoke casually. But the next second, his heart stirred, because he suddenly thought of a certain someone. Last winter, that uncle of his, what was his name again? His Four-Star Territory was on the verge of bankruptcy, which was why he accepted a massive, suicidal order, ultimately being tortured to death by a special BOSS.
But thinking about it now, that guy perfectly fit this type of mission, right? Staking everything on a single throw, going all-in; success or death?
Ah, life. What one fears the most is transforming into a gambling dog.
Tossing this matter directly to the back of his mind, Li Wei exhaled a mouthful of turbid air. Only then did the joy that had been suppressed deep at the bottom of his heart burst forth layer by layer.
Yes, regardless of the fact that the King and the Duke had robbed this planet clean once, in reality, there was still a sufficient foundation of One-Star and Two-Star quality materials. There were still plentiful Three-Star Iron Ore and Three-Star Stone Ore buried deep underground.
This was still a Low-Magic World equivalent to Kakh City.
Therefore, this was already a massive harvest. A territory of nearly a thousand square kilometers belonging to himself, ah!
Two years ago, he was still a tiny, insignificant Three-Star Professional. Five years ago, he was still wandering alone in the park in late autumn, like a lonely ghost.
What more did he want?
Yes, this piece of territory of his would at most be able to persist for 150 years, and then it would go bankrupt. But he truly didn't care!
Happy, extremely happy!
He even hopped up and down on the spot twice. Subsequently, he chuckled 'hehe', plucking out those thoughts of wanting comfort, wanting to vent, wanting to go crazy and party brought about by his wild ecstasy, and slapping them to death one by one.
Next, Li Wei also wasn't in a hurry to go find Second Aunt in the Mage Tower. He first entered the Temple. Here, there were already seven One-Star Temple Priests bustling about. And in the backyard of the Temple, those Half-Pigmen and Half-Cowmen were still waiting for the Temple's Faith Value to recover.
Confirming that their conditions were all still pretty good, Li Wei then took wide strides up onto the city wall, measuring this city wall of his beneath the starlight.
It must be said, this city wall was far, far better than that city wall of Kakh City.
This was a Level 4 City Wall with a perimeter reaching 5.4 kilometers.
The total height was ten meters, the base width was six meters, and the top width was four meters. Although it couldn't be considered very magnificent and grand, at least compared to that previous city wall, the numerical discrepancy wasn't massive.
However, the greatest feature of this city wall was its built-in magical structure, and its connection to the Magic Well. So, letting alone its astonishing defensive power, while fighting upon this city wall, allied forces would obtain three types of enhancement buffs: Life could slowly recover by 10 points per hour, Stamina could recover by 30 points per hour, and Spiritual Power could recover by 1 point per hour.
For ordinary soldiers, this was already considerably formidable.
Additionally, through this city wall, the Caster could observe and gain insight into the enemy's offensive posture from right inside the Mage Tower, and could maximally guard against the infiltration of certain evil black magics.
For example, the deployment of plagues, natural disasters, and the like.
Exceptionally excellent.
Li Wei walked a circuit along this Level 4 City Wall, his state of mind having thoroughly stabilized and settled down. Thus, he sat upon the city wall. With a stir of his heart, the Prestige Card system presented his territory information one by one, like flowing water.
First was the magic power reserves. The Territory Main City's storage had reached 2,450 units.
Riverside Fortress's magic power storage had reached 450 units.
Hathaway's Barony Territory's magic power storage had reached 350 units. A bit less, but it didn't matter much. Because at this moment, Hathaway was exerting full effort to control the Magic Well, frantically extracting the residual magic power from the surroundings, including the river. Even though the ancient magic fragments within the Great Snow Mountain had been taken away, the remnants were still sufficient to scrape together 500 units.
This was the ballast stone for their territory's future development.
From now on, it could not be utilized lightly.
Including those Enchanted Giant Ballistae and Enchanted Trebuchets, from now on they would all serve as decorations, not to be mobilized lightly or rashly.
Then, it was the 450 Professional Soldiers. This was the most massive sum of wealth.
Even if one hundred and fifty of them were new recruits who joined over these past two months, in reality, they were all outstanding individuals among the Freemen, plus converted Ability Users. All of them were Three-Star, and all of them were equipped with Three-Star Enchanted Sets.
Like the most outstanding 54 individuals, they had basically all attained Five-Star Enchanted Sets.
Next, those one hundred Three-Star Warhorses in Li Wei's hands would be deployed into the legions. When the time came, he would possess one hundred and eighty-two cavalrymen. Especially since among them, there were even over fifty cavalrymen converted from Centaurs...
These were all the trump cards and hidden hole cards for executing Conquest Missions in the future.
"However, don't even think about Conquest Missions within the next ten years. From now on, these soldiers have no way to quickly improve and advance. Polishing their combat experience, Professional Destiny Grids, and combat techniques until they reach utter perfection is the royal road."
"But regardless, within twenty years, the territory must—or rather, be upgraded to a Five-Star Territory as much as possible. Even if I can only serve as a Count. Because—this is just like a country; moving against the current, if you don't advance, you will fall back!"
Li Wei was quite worried that in the future, forced by circumstances, he would truly have no choice but to go execute that 'In the Name of the Gods' territory war mission.
Many times, watching so many people who followed him, trusted him—thousands, tens of thousands, over a hundred thousand eating alongside him—his thoughts would invisibly be coerced and swept along.
But there was already no retreat to speak of.
This was the All-Heavens Lord Alliance. The moment he became a Lord, he could only painstakingly forge ahead.
Opening the Prestige System, Li Wei began to fulfill his promises. This time, all the Freemen within the territory could see it.
"Confer title! Advisor Li Yue as Riverside Baron! Fiefdom at Riverside Fortress."
"Confer title! Advisor Liang Yuzhi as Small City Baron, concurrently serving as Chief Caster of the Flame City Casters Association."
"Confer title! Advisor Zhao Xuanxuan as North Mountain Baron, Fiefdom at Northern Fortress."
"Confer title! Advisor Thomas as Giant Stone Baron, Fiefdom at Dawn Fortress."
—
Next, Li Wei consecutively conferred titles upon nine Riverside Knights in one breath, granting each of them the reclamation rights to two hundred mu of land. But not in the Main City District; rather, they were all within the illegal territory. He also permitted them to construct their own village castles, and permitted them to possess their own Knight Squires.
As for the other 45 most elite heavy cavalrymen, they could uniformly obtain the reclamation rights to 100 mu of farmland.
Ordinary cavalrymen could obtain the reclamation rights to 50 mu of land.
Ordinary soldiers obtained the reclamation rights to 10 mu of land near their encampments.
Aside from this, the core members of various departments within the territory also obtained reclamation rights to varying amounts of farmland.
Furthermore, Li Wei even lifted the restrictions on owner-peasant farmers. As long as they were willing to move out of the Main City, they could obtain a house and five mu of land.
But it seemed those who responded were very few. Because everyone currently still harbored a doomsday mindset. It didn't matter, there was plenty of time.
There was also no need to worry about the attacks of formidable enemies. Now, with the ancient magic fragments being taken away, the magic concentration of this planet had plummeted. It was feared that even the Neanderthals wouldn't want to make a huge fuss mobilizing forces to run over and infiltrate.
Not to mention, Li Wei truly, heavily hoped that a Neanderthal squad would come...
In short, visibly to the naked eye, the era of peace had arrived.
Next, Li Wei promulgated another set of management regulations for the mountains, forests, and wastelands within the Territory Main City District.
It stipulated that the land, mountains, and forests within the legal territory, covered by the Magic Shield, should absolutely not be developed or cultivated unless absolutely necessary.
As for the farmland already reclaimed, the property rights were all confiscated to be owned by the Lord.
Want to farm? Sure, go to the illegal territory to pioneer and reclaim land.
Just like how the magic power in the Magic Wells and the Mage Tower was all completely sealed up and stored away. The Enchanted Blacksmith Workshop was closed. The previously highly skilled Enchanted Blacksmiths could currently only forge some dilapidated, tattered agricultural tools.
Haha, the Magic Potion Preparation Workshop also had to be halted. Every single day would feel as lengthy and drawn out as an entire year.
Even the communal meals—alright, this one would be retained. Moreover, it had to be made as abundant and bountiful as possible. Anyhow, from now on, there wouldn't be a lack of ordinary grain. But the prices of One-Star grain would rise across the board. Everything would align and keep pace with Weir City.
Because this was exactly how Weir City handled things.
Li Wei doing this could also be considered crossing the river by feeling the stones of Weir City.
(End of this chapter)