Helping each other with countless me.

Chapter 560: The Army
With a mischievous smile, Alice lifted Evelyn's hem, revealing the girl's fair and smooth abdomen.

Evelyn blushed and struggled in vain.

"Alice! You traitor! Waaah..."

Alice silently stopped him with a gesture.

"Please, Lord of the Mist."

Alice turned to Li Zhongren, her smile carrying a hint of enigmatic inquiry.

Li Zhongren didn't say much, his fingertips shimmering with a faint yet exceptionally pure magical glow.

The light was not any common elemental color, but rather a manifestation of a highly condensed will.

His fingers moved like a pen, quickly sketching several simple yet strangely rhythmic runes on Evelyn's warm skin.

The moment the rune took shape, a flash of light appeared, and it seeped into the skin like a brand, leaving only faint, almost invisible silver lines.

"All right."

Li Zhongren withdrew his hand, his tone indifferent.

"As long as you stay put in the tunnel, this seal won't affect you. But if you want to leave the Misty Forest..."

He made an explosion gesture.

"boom."

Evelyn felt the faint, lingering binding sensation in her abdomen, as if connected to the pulse of the entire cave. For the first time, her clear, foolish eyes were filled with a profound understanding of the word "genius"—and a slight sense of defeat.

Alice gave Li Zhongren a deep look, her admiration for him almost overflowing.

Li Zhongren clapped his hands, as if he had just accomplished a trivial task.

"Gentlemen, the holiday is over. Since we're not going to die anytime soon, let's make the most of our remaining time."
-
Dividing line

Driven by the "inspiration" of the sealing runes, the members of the Shadow Daggers squad had no choice but to join the bustling tunnel expansion project.

Their professional skills quickly found a place to be put to use.

Vice-captain "Silver Fox" Alice became the "chief designer" of the tunnel trap.

She was no longer motivated by murder, but by a desire to transform this underground labyrinth into an even more despairing hunting ground.

She combined Li Zhongren's concept of "tunnel warfare" to design a more insidious and interconnected complex trap.

The "slippery zone," created using the slippery moss unique to the Misty Forest, connects to a trigger-activated poison crossbow.

Beneath the seemingly solid foothold lies a bottomless "glass trap" forged by Karenina with black flames.

At the corner of the narrow passage, she placed her unique "paralyzing fog" generator, which was triggered by inconspicuous moss spores.

She even began to enthusiastically experiment with modifying alchemical bombs into controllable "directional blasting" devices for the rapid creation or sealing of passages.

Evelyn, the "Whisperer," took on the "infrastructure" task on the magical level.

Her proudest creation is the "Breeze Circulation System"—which uses an array of wind elemental runes to extract and purify the relatively dry air from deep within the cave, and then transport it to various main areas and key nodes through specific pipes. This effectively solves the problems of stuffiness and foul air deep in the tunnels, making it a veritable "central air conditioning" system in another world.

She also tried to inscribe temperature-regulating runes in key areas to isolate the underground cold air, and used the "light spell" to improve the "magic lamp" to make it durable and not easily destroyed. She even began to study how to use earth element magic to reinforce certain fragile rock layers. Her magical knowledge was also inspired by Li Zhongren's occasional "wild ideas".

All of this naturally requires a large amount of raw materials, including special ores, magic crystals, alchemical potions, metal components, and even some rare magical beast materials.

Thus, the Fifth Princess's special envoy, Mr. Aaron West, discovered that in addition to his roles as "head teacher of the literacy class" and "etiquette instructor," he had gloriously added a new title—"Chief Procurement and Transit Specialist of the Misty Forest Underground Kingdom."

Aaron's feelings were complicated.

He witnessed Li Zhongren's inhuman strength firsthand, easily lifting boulders that would require several strong men to move, and punching deep craters into rock walls. He also witnessed the silent, efficient, and extraordinary hundred-man army that moved with effortless grace.

Furthermore, through subtle probing, he vaguely sensed the terrifying ability called "Military Formation," which could instantly concentrate the power of scattered soldiers into a single point.

This is no longer just a simple superhuman; it is the core of a private armed force with unlimited potential, capable of shaking the very fabric of a region!
And all of this happened in just a few months.

How far will this man grow in the future?
Could it transform into something resembling a giant dragon?
His assessment report kept getting more and more detailed.

Ultimately, he wrote down everything he had observed in a secret letter.

This included not only his observations of Li Zhongren's strength and inhuman growth rate, but also his own speculations and suggestions.

If the princess could wield such power, it would definitely help her reunify the entire Baikal Empire.

Of course, this comes at a price, namely, the issue of power. Therefore, the most reasonable approach is through marriage.

However, he also knew that the decision to arrange a marriage ultimately rested with the princess, so he only mentioned it briefly; the specific outcome was beyond his control.
Dividing line

In the capital of the Kingdom of Carlos, deep within the palace.

Princess Carlos Baigal unfolded Aaron's secret letter, her slender fingers tracing the powerful, penetrating handwriting.

Her stunningly beautiful face revealed little emotion; only her deep, emerald eyes, as still as a cold pool, flickered with a barely perceptible ripple when they reflected the words "marriage alliance" on the letter.

She stood up, walked to the huge floor-to-ceiling window, and looked down at the bustling yet turbulent capital.

Prince Keynes's power is overwhelming, and she desperately needs a way to break the deadlock.

Li Zhongren, this suddenly appearing Lord of the Mist, was indeed, as Aaron said, like a boulder thrown into stagnant water, arousing her irresistible interest and a hint of ambition.

"In the future, they may possess power comparable to humanoid dragons. A mysterious and unpredictable military formation of a hundred extraordinary soldiers."

Carlos Baikal repeated the key words from the letter in a low voice, each word representing enormous war potential.

If this power could be grasped in one's hands...

A political marriage? She had considered a political marriage.

But to stake one's life on a stranger who came from humble beginnings and rose from obscurity?
This risk is too great.

After a long period of contemplation, a resolute glint flashed in the eyes of the third princess.

She returned to her desk, picked up her brush, dipped it in ink, and wrote with elegant yet powerful strokes:
"Lord Aaron: I have received your letter."

"This person is indeed an anomaly, and his potential is worth investing heavily in. I grant your request and will fully support his underground construction. All necessary materials will be secretly transported by the Wang family's directly affiliated caravans under the name of 'Mist Expedition,' with priority given to ensuring that there is no shortage. You are responsible for making the contact and must ensure that he feels the sincerity of this princess."

"As for your suggestion, my dear minister, let's postpone it. The might of the tiger needs to be tested against a stronger enemy. Let him freely operate in the Misty Forest, opening up a second front and continuously weakening Third Brother's forces. This is a two-birds-with-one-stone plan, both weakening our powerful enemy and allowing me to test the true combat strength of this 'Lord of the Misty Forest' against a regular army! If he can truly, as you say, with our small force, resist or even defeat the heavy troops Third Brother has deployed..."

Carlos Baikal paused, his pen hovering over the paper for a moment before finally falling.

"This proves that she is indeed qualified to stand shoulder to shoulder with this princess."

"At that time, I will personally consider the matter of the marriage alliance."

"Someone, deliver this letter along with the supplies to the royal caravan."
-
Dividing line

Deep inside the cave, in a brightly lit "classroom" illuminated by torches.

Mr. Aaron West sat upright, striving to maintain the demeanor of an imperial noble envoy, even though he was facing a hundred burly soldiers sitting cross-legged on the ground, sharp-eyed, muscular, and covered in dirt and sweat.

"cough."

He cleared his throat and pointed to a few simple characters drawn on the stone slab.

"This symbol represents 'one,' and this one represents 'person.' Together, they mean 'one person.'"

The soldiers watched expressionlessly, their focused gazes almost frightening.

Aaron felt like he was teaching a group of tigers that were always ready to pounce on their prey to read, and the pressure was immense.

After teaching a few basic characters, he began to try aristocratic etiquette lessons.

"Bowing is a basic way to express respect. For example, when facing someone of slightly higher status, one may perform a gesture of respect by placing one's hand on the chest..."

Aaron demonstrated gracefully, placing his right hand on his left chest and bowing slightly.

The soldiers looked at each other.

The biggest soldier tried to imitate it, but his movements were too exaggerated and he almost tripped over himself, causing several soldiers next to him to twitch at the corners of their mouths. Another soldier, on the other hand, performed the movement extremely stiffly, bending over like a sheet of iron.

"Pay attention to the naturalness and fluidity of the movements..."

Aaron patiently corrected him, but in his mind he was frantically taking notes. His movements were clumsy but he tried his best to imitate, and he interacted with facial expressions, proving that he was not a puppet and had basic learning ability and emotional response.

During his lunch break, he saw the soldiers spontaneously dividing into small teams for combat training.

It was by no means a rigid routine, but rather full of the ferocity and flexibility of real combat, with tacit cooperation, constant eye contact between attackers and defenders, smooth collaboration, clear tactical awareness, and independent judgment.

What intrigued Aaron most was how Li Zhongren had trained them to be so elite. Of course, he dared not ask, but based on his observations, these soldiers hadn't taken any secret medicine; they simply seemed to have become stronger through constant training. Undoubtedly, the core of this was Li.
He could only attribute it to Li Zhongren's mysterious "military formation" or some unknown, unique method that could stimulate human potential.

This adds another layer of mystery to his evaluation of Li Zhongren.

Just as the underground kingdom of the Misty Forest was becoming more and more complete, and Aaron's "students" were barely able to write their own names in a crooked and messy way, the thunderous wrath of the Third Prince Keynes finally descended, accompanied by the stench of blood.

"Trash! A bunch of trash!"

The third prince's handsome face was contorted with rage as he slammed a battle report to the ground.

The document clearly records the disappearance of the "Shadow Dagger" team, as well as the subsequent disappearance of several other teams attempting to explore the Misty Forest.

"A whole month! You couldn't even bring back a farmer's head! And you lost Shadowfang's most elite squad! You've completely disgraced me!"

The generals and their staff remained silent in fear.

"That damned peasant! Did he think he could escape this by hiding in a burrow like a rat?"

Keynes Baikal's eyes burned with madness and murderous intent.

"I'm going to dig him out! I'll grind him and his rat hole to dust! I'll let everyone know the consequences of offending me, Keynes!"

He turned abruptly and roared at the official in charge of mercenary affairs.

"Bounty! Raise the bounty to five thousand gold coins! No! Ten thousand gold coins! Hire that mercenary group, hire them all! Snow Wolves, Skull Crushers, get all the desperate criminals on the list to come here! I'm going to drown that rat with sheer numbers!"

Soon, the mercenary community in the Spider Territory and the surrounding areas was in an uproar.

A bounty of 10,000 gold coins is enough to drive any mercenary group crazy.

Lured by the gold coins, a behemoth hastily assembled from several notorious large mercenary groups began to gather.

Leading the group was the infamous "Blood Wolf Mercenary Group".

Their flags are embroidered with blood-dripping wolf heads, and their members are mostly veterans and fugitives who survived bloody battles on the empire's borders. They are well-equipped, fierce, and ruthless, and are skilled in group charges and massacres.

The leader, "Blood Wolf" Gal, a giant with a hideous scar on his face, carried a bloodstained axe the size of a door panel, looked in the direction of the Misty Forest, and licked his lips.

"Ten thousand gold coins? And the prince's favor? Brothers, are you ready to tear those ground rats to pieces?"

"Roar!"

His response was the bloodthirsty roar of thousands of mercenaries.

"Skullcrusher," "Iron Thorn," "Black Scorpion"... banners representing greed and death are raised at the edge of the Misty Forest.

Smoke billowed, swords flew like a forest, and heavy siege equipment was slowly pushed to the front line.

This "army" of desperados, numbering nearly three thousand, moved like a pack of wolves drawn by the scent of blood, carrying an aura of destruction, slowly pressing towards the depths of the Misty Forest, towards the legendary lair of the "Lord of the Misty."

Inside the underground command center, Li Zhongren "saw" the dense red dots at the edge of the forest from a wartime perspective, but a cold, battle-ready smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Finally, something decent has arrived."

He took a deep breath. During this time, his own strength growth had stopped. The reason was simple: on the one hand, he had given most of the attribute points he had gained to his subordinates, but more importantly, he had no choice but to give them away. He could no longer extract power from the weak. This was a mechanism to prevent him from using his sword against the weak. If he could take over this mercenary group, his strength would once again experience an explosive growth!

"Attention all personnel, prepare for battle."

Under Li Zhongren's secret orders, the hundred-man squad silently inspected weapons and adjusted trap mechanisms.

Karenina silently circulated the magical energy within her body. In the tunnel, she was a human flamethrower. Especially after receiving Li Zhongren's tutelage, her control over magical power had greatly improved, and she could help this man gain greater benefits.

As for the mercenary squad, they obediently returned to their cages.

Given their hard work during this period, Li Zhongren decided to spare their lives. After this war, they would be released. Since they would continue to be mercenaries and could not fight against the guild, returning to the prison was the best solution.

(End of this chapter)