Lords of the Heavens

Chapter 420 Strategic Retreat
"As for the second option, it's even simpler. Throw money at me. Give me a million gold coins, and I'll tailor-make five six-star 'All-powerful' cards for each of you, guaranteeing that you won't be called out by Mage Neanderthal for a month after you enter."

"Two options, choose for yourself!"

"If you can't make up your mind right now, you can wait a while before deciding. You still have more than two years."

After Night Owl finished speaking, he looked up at Li Wei, as if wanting to see what his choice would be.

Li Wei's expression remained unchanged, and he didn't even hesitate, asking, "If I choose the first option, does Lord Night Owl have a six-star upgrade card?"

"You made your choice so quickly, it seems you're quite confident in yourself. That's right, I do have six-star upgrade cards. I've actually accumulated quite a few over the years. These things are also sold in the black market in Bull's Horn Alley, for about 200,000 gold coins each. Do you want to buy them?"

"purchase!"

Li Wei acted without hesitation, his mind completely free of any distracting thoughts, as pure as a robot.

"make a deal!"

Night Owl's eyes were playful. With a flick of his wrist, three six-star upgrade cards flew over. The moment Li Wei caught them, the transaction of 600,000 standard gold coins was completed with a crisp sound.

At this point, Night Owl waved his hand, signaling Li Wei to get lost.

But after Li Wei left, a hint of envy flashed across her face, though it disappeared in an instant.

"This kid is too steady."

At this moment, Li Wei returned to the prop card sales area and bought ten Five-Star Overlord Cards in one go. Each card cost 10,000 gold coins, so ten cards would cost 100,000 gold coins. Including the five cards he already had, he had a total of fifteen cards.

Theoretically, if he were to go on a mission alone, that would be enough.

He didn't rush to leave, but waited outside the nearest portal, because it was the only direct portal to the Kader Province, and Zhao Xuanxuan could only return through it.

In fact, he wasn't the only one waiting here. The Logistics Department, Tactics Department, Resources Department, and Internal Affairs Department all sent people to wait. It seems that the scope of this incident is quite large, and it seems that Lu Ziming from the Internal Affairs Department has been killed.

The commotion was too great; the pain that Black Wolf, Gray Fox, and the others looked like earlier was no joke.

Time passed by, and as night fell, a faint light finally appeared outside the Anywhere Door, and then a figure pushed open the door and walked out.

He was a man in his thirties, who looked a bit weak. He was wearing a wrinkled set of casual clothes and his eyes were lifeless. Li Wei also remembered this man; he seemed to be from the Resources Department and was a four-star professional.

He looked around, gave a pale smile, and with the help of the people sent by the Ministry of Resources, got into the carriage and quickly left.

Lu Ziming from the Ministry of the Interior returned next. He looked more energetic, but that was about it. He left quickly without saying a word.

Then seven or eight people returned in one go. Some were four-star, and some were three-star. Four-star professionals were all accepted, while three-star ones were just wandering ghosts.

Interestingly, four-star professionals suffer from significant depletion of energy and spirit, while three-star professionals remain lively and energetic.

Soon, when there was almost no one around, the Anywhere Door opened again, and a somewhat weak Zhao Xuanxuan walked out. She saw Li Wei at a glance. At that moment, she seemed to want to cry, but then she laughed. She wanted to walk with her head held high, but she almost stumbled.

"Stop being a hero, it's good that you're back."

Li Wei quickly helped her into the carriage.

On the way, Zhao Xuanxuan tried to say something several times, but Li Wei stopped her with his eyes.

Soon, they arrived at their destination, and Li Wei helped Zhao Xuanxuan get out of the car again.

"Where is this? Aren't you taking me to the Feng residence? You have a little maid with you."

"Shut up."

Li Wei paid the fare, helped Zhao Xuanxuan open the Anywhere Door again, and went straight back to the territory.

When the portal to the territory was opened, Second Aunt was already waiting outside, and even Hathaway had come early after hearing the news.

"Damn it! These damn barbarians! You little trash, your luck is really bad." As she spoke, Second Aunt had already forced two different four-star magic potions down Zhao Xuanxuan's throat, and then hurriedly directed Li Wei to put Zhao Xuanxuan into the mage tower.

"Dying in battle is nothing, falling is no big deal, but the tearing of the body and soul can easily leave lasting effects. Fortunately, I was careful this time and secretly prepared the relevant secret medicine, otherwise I'm afraid this time would have been terrible."

Second Aunt, I—

"Don't speak. Although the kingdom's mage resurrected you, the resurrection was too crude. You'd better stay put for the next year. In fact, you'd better not participate in any cross-border missions. It takes a hundred days to recover from a serious injury, and three years to die. These are all lessons learned from experience."

After busying herself for about half an hour, Auntie Zhao Xuanxuan was placed directly into the medicine tub. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief and look at Li Wei, saying, "Xiao Wei, although I don't know the specifics yet, I hope you won't blame Xiao La. Dying in battle during missions is normal. The Alliance of Lords of the Heavens isn't a charity. We have to get used to this kind of thing."

"But don't worry, as long as she takes good care of herself for three years, this little piece of trash's growth potential might increase significantly again. This experience of going through life and death is enough for her to have a profound realization. Um, I have a six-star upgrade card here. I was planning to save it for the future, but I'll give it to her as a leave of absence this time."

"Second Aunt!"

Li Wei smiled helplessly, but then produced four more six-star upgrade cards. "In fact, my idea is that not only Xuanxuan, but also you all should stop going on cross-border missions and stay in the territory. The barbarians are clearly targeting me, and they will naturally target you as well. Let's lay low for a while, accumulate some strength, and talk about it again in eight years."

"As for myself, I'm a small boat that's easy to turn around. No matter what I encounter, I at least have the ability to get out of trouble."

"Huh? Xiaowei, you need to think this through, don't be silly!"

“Yes, Li Wei, if it really comes down to it, I’ll go with you. Our goals are both small, so we can leave Auntie and Sister Xiaoyue to stay and watch the house.”

Both Auntie and Hathaway reacted strongly.

"No need to say anything more, there's no room for discussion on this. Besides, what I said is only one aspect. On the other hand, I'm more worried that once we go on a cross-border mission, our territory might be attacked. This time, two four-star territories in the Kader Province were attacked by barbarians. We have to be wary of this. We can't come back from a cross-border mission and find that our home is gone!"

"Territory, territory, without territory, everything is meaningless! Our territory has just stabilized and still needs development in all aspects. Although the possibility of a barbarian attack is small, if it does occur, it will be a life-or-death calamity. Without you guarding the territory, it will be absolutely impossible."

"Especially since this time the barbarians seem to have hired some kind of reincarnator, we can't let our guard down even more."

After Li Wei finished speaking, especially his last sentence, his aunt and Hathaway's expressions changed slightly.

“That’s right, Li Wei is right. Although I don’t know exactly where I lost this time, everything is wrong. At the crucial moment, the main city where I was doing the quest suddenly became chaotic and the mage tower was destroyed. This is too strange. Otherwise, I would never have lost. My warhorse was inexplicably poisoned. Without my warhorse, I’m so unlucky. The two Necromancers on the other side were pressing me hard and I couldn’t fight back at all.”

"Fortunately, I didn't lose out either, and fortunately, that four-star lord of the Kader province saw the opportunity early. She was also quite smart, activating a six-star battle-stricken rescue card in advance—"

Zhao Xuanxuan started to get a headache halfway through her sentence, and Hathaway quickly said:
"Xuanxuan, stop talking and don't think about these things. Too much emotional fluctuation is bad for your soul. You must stay calm now. Just leave everything else to us."

"Okay, I know. I just want to say that I didn't lose money. Hehe, I only lost a cavalry card and a craftsman card. But before that, I relied on the Blood Burning talent and the advantage of heavy cavalry to kill two Necromancer centurions, six Necromancer infantrymen, twelve Necromancer archers, and five Necromancer rangers on the battlefield. I exchanged all the gold cards for two silver tokens and twenty-three black iron tokens. And then one of the two dropped purple cards dropped again. Now I only have one left."

"I've put all of these into the territory's treasury. Li Wei, you can decide how to distribute them."

"And another thing, oh dear, let me tell you, the Necromancers are nothing special. I haven't seen any of those Reincarnators, but if it's a head-on charge, I can crush them just as easily. They're spineless cowards, all they know is to poison my warhorses..."

Zhao Xuanxuan became more and more agitated as she spoke, but in the end, it was Hathaway who used a sleeping spell to calm her down.

“It seems your judgment is correct, Li Wei. We need to defend our territory and tighten our defenses. Also, if possible, I hope to build another magic mine in Dawn Fortress and apply for the construction of a portal, even if it's just a portal between the main city and my barony, so that we can quickly deploy legions to provide support.”

"Yes, and another thing is that the road between Dawn Fortress and the main city must be rebuilt. The steep mountains along the way must be cleared and a wider, flatter road must be built. In addition, early warning outposts must be built on several mountain peaks along the way."

"After all, that area is mostly mountainous, so our heavy cavalry can't play to their strengths. Therefore, we need to deploy a legion mainly composed of heavy infantry and heavy archers there."

“That’s right. Our heavy cavalry is now close to two hundred. On the plains, that’s an iron torrent, enough to hold the area around the river fortress and west of the main city. But in the future, it would be best to retake that abandoned bridge fortress in the east.”

"Of course, we shouldn't rush into expansion at this stage. We should just focus on resolving the issues of the magic mines and highways at Dawn Fortress."

Li Wei, Hathaway, and their second aunt quickly reached a consensus after discussing it amongst themselves.

Li Wei stayed for dinner and, taking advantage of the safe environment of the Mage Tower, began to upgrade the Hunter and Lumberjack cards to rare status.

(End of this chapter)