MC's career as foreign lord

He chose a spot beside the mine entrance not far away. After simply repairing the stones there, he could directly place them to make a door.

The advantage of this location is that it's on a necessary path, not too far from home, and can be linked to the mine. Most importantly, the casting doesn't even require building a square enclosure!

Because this place is conveniently located in the mountains, he only needs to clear a small area and leave a wall. The simplest method is, of course, to cast from top to bottom.

He glanced at Jim, who was diligently digging soil. The grassland, which originally had a mound, now resembled a low cliff, and the remaining area was level with the farm.

"It seems like there's enough soil!" Zhou Ren said, walking around to the other side of the cliff. A small open space had also been cleared here, and he dug down one block.

In reality, the casting method he wanted to use was very simple: first cast two five-block-high pillars, and then cast obsidian above and below.

So Zhou Ren quickly dug down to ground level, and then cast a row of four obsidian blocks underground.

He left four side-by-side squares and poured four blocks of lava into them. A terrifying amount of heat was released, seemingly endless and with intense firepower.

Even the surrounding air was slightly distorted by the heat. Zhou Ren wiped the sweat from his face, knowing that the situation couldn't continue, and directly took out a bucket and poured water down from above.

"Sizzle!" It sounded like a steak just dropped into a frying pan, emitting a very intense searing sound. When he looked down again, the steaming lava had disappeared.

Then, upon closer inspection, he saw only four dark, side-by-side obsidian blocks, seemingly still emitting some residual heat from just cooling down.

Thus, the base of the Nether portal was completed. Now there were two five-block-high pillars, but actually only four blocks high after removing the base.

Using the same method, he left one block of lava at the position of the two pillars. Then, he temporarily sealed the middle stage of the Nether portal, where he was standing, with stones, and two more obsidian blocks were created by the water flow.

Zhou Ren repeated the process to create the remaining three obsidian blocks. He only had two buckets of lava left, and only two blocks at the top remained uncovered.

The next step was naturally even simpler. The last two buckets of lava were placed in their proper positions, and then the bucket of water was reused and added above the lava.

After the last two obsidian blocks were created, the Nether portal was complete. Zhou Ren dug away the six cobblestone blocks used as filler in the middle, and a Nether portal quickly appeared before him. The next task was to dig away all the surrounding stones.

Just like he said at the beginning, this location was specifically for the Nether portal. If there were other portals in the future, they could also be moved here.

This area, as a teleportation zone, will be permanently preserved along with the underground passage to the mine, and the mountain behind the Nether portal will be retained as an auxiliary tool for the teleportation portal.

Zhou Ren took a few steps back, looking at the scene with satisfaction. He had completely cleared the surrounding stones with the iron pickaxe in his hand, which was actually not a slow process.

But that's it for now. He didn't intend to activate the Nether portal, because, from any perspective, now was not the best time to open the portal. Neither Mosa nor he was ready.

"Oh..." Zhou Ren rubbed his head in frustration. Today was indeed a bit upsetting. The water elevator that should have been created was stubbornly stuck because of a soul sand block.

But now he didn't want to do anything else. Why not finish the other areas besides the soul sand first?

Thinking this, Zhou Ren suddenly felt that it might work, so he excitedly picked up the pickaxe and dug two more holes next to the wooden ladder he had just made. These would serve as the upper and lower passages for the water elevator.

This wasn't actually the first time he had done this, after all, the water elevator only needed one soul sand to be fully operational, so doing everything else now would also leave time for the future.

Anyway, Zhou Ren would have to go to the Nether sooner or later. He had never played the later versions, so he had only heard of the things in the Nether, but he didn't actually know what they looked like.

Moreover, the danger of this world itself was constantly increasing. There was still a demon in the furnace in his hand, and he didn't know if his previous idea was truly feasible?

The method of making these two holes was actually not difficult. After all, the number of layers in this hole was only 20 blocks. He quickly dug out both holes, and then it was time to fill them with water.

This stage was actually more tedious. Although the surroundings of this hole were all soil and stone, so there was no need to place anything extra, the bubbles from the soul sand had to be guaranteed, and the water flow in all areas had to be water blocks.

This meant that his method of putting a block of water and then descending from the sky would not work, because except for the water at the very top, which was infinite water, the water flow below was just ordinary water flow extending from it.

So he needed to replace all the water in this level with water blocks, but he had many buckets of water, so doing this was not troublesome, and in order to ensure that each of these water flows was fixed and not flowing, he also needed to put them up one by one from below to confirm.

Having many buckets of water was just being capricious. Zhou Ren directly made an infinite water source below—anyway, it was just dug down from above, so it wasn't a waste of time.

Then, with 20 buckets of water in hand, he could just lay two blocks of water from below, all the way up to about 10 blocks. Zhou Ren moved quickly and was at the top in no time.

Of course, he didn't idle in the following time. After descending, he filled 20 buckets of water again and completely filled these 20 blocks. Now the prototype of the water elevator was made.

This was much more convenient than the water elevator made of signs before, only needing a simple water flow, and a magma block and soul sand below.

Zhou Ren decided to test the quality of this water elevator, so he placed a magma block at the bottom and slowly climbed up along the water flow.

It was obvious that the other water column beside him was full of bubbles, which meant that air was flowing in it.

So in the game, some people would use it directly as a breathing air column, after all, carrying a door with you was a bit troublesome, but this kind of bubble column would naturally generate underwater.

With considerable effort, Zhou Ren managed to swim upwards, then dove straight down. As expected, even underwater, he could breathe freely through his nose, unlike before when he had to hold his breath to move.

Moreover, the suction force of this water column was even more terrifying than he had imagined. He could feel that a distance of 20 meters, which would normally take him a dozen seconds to swim, was now covered in just two breaths, and he could already see the exit below.

"Phew!" Zhou Ren jumped out of the exit smoothly. It had to be said that the only downside of the magma block elevator was that even in water, unless wearing Frost Walker boots or having fire resistance, you would still get burned.

Fortunately, this kind of burn could actually be avoided. He just needed to keep an eye on the exit and jump out directly, instead of being swept down by the current.

There was also a way to avoid it by sneaking, but Zhou Ren couldn't figure out how to sneak, so he had to give up.

Now that the water elevator was almost ready, he didn't intend to go back up. Instead, he took a look at the underground mine and took out the furnace from his backpack.

"Damn human, what have you done to me?"

Zhou Ren quickly heard the voice coming from inside the furnace. It seemed that even in the state of suspended time, although this guy still couldn't move, he could clearly feel the difference between himself now and other times.

Balrog was also very annoyed. He clearly felt that he had just been caught not long ago, but in the brief act of being taken in and out, he knew that he seemed to have been put into some kind of alternate space where time was stopped.

The special power from the abyss demon allowed him to feel the time fluctuations belonging to himself. It was precisely because of this that he felt fear. A legendary mage, one who could even change time, wouldn't that mean there was no hope for him to escape?

Because of this, he began to curse loudly, seemingly wanting to vent the fear in his heart.

Zhou Ren curiously squatted down and looked at him. Through the hole in the furnace, he could see that the Balrog inside seemed a little frustrated.

That wouldn't do. What if the flames emitted by a frustrated Balrog weren't good enough? Wouldn't that be terrible?

Thinking this, he patted the furnace, drawing the Balrog's attention. "Balrog, how about we make a deal? You work hard for me here, and when enough time has passed, I'll let you out, how about that?"

"You have to make a contract with me, when will you let me out?" Balrog said. Demon contracts weren't impossible to break, but breaking them came at a great cost.

"I won't sign a contract with you, but I can swear to you by Corellon, the day my life ends will be the day of your freedom! How about that?" Zhou Ren said.

Anyway, he looked like an ordinary human. Surely a demon wouldn't be afraid of comparing lifespan with a human, as for the future, if he knew? Ah! Then he wouldn't have a future!

"It's useless for you to catch me, you might as well let me go, my true body is in the abyss!" Balrog said.

Unlike that demon who was tricked to death because of his own greed, he was just a projection after all. Even if the power in the projection was considerable, destroying this projection would only weaken his main body slightly for a few days, and wouldn't affect much.

"Who says it's useless? You have a lot of uses!" Zhou Ren said, "Demons like you should be able to burn for hundreds of years, right?"

He opened the furnace and took a thorough look. Indeed, the grid for placing combustibles was already full, but the space above for burning was still empty.

So he directly took some crude copper from the nearby box and threw it in, and then the demon's surprised voice rang out.

"How is that possible? My body is actually burning non-stop, you are consuming my power!"

Zhou Ren smiled, "This is where you're useful. When you've helped me burn enough things, I can let you go!"

"Damn it! You faithless human, I will be completely burned to death before I even get your release!" Balrog was very annoyed, but saw the human in front of him stroking his chin, asking in a tone he couldn't understand.

"So you will be completely burned to death, then at the current rate, how long will it take for you to be burned to death?" Zhou Ren was very discouraged.

"Uh... about ten days?" Balrog said, "I am a great demon, what kind of flame is this? It can actually make me burn out completely in just 10 days!"

"That's a bit of a problem, you let me burn more copper first, maybe we can cooperate a little?" Zhou Ren said, "Why do you demons want human souls?"

"I won't cooperate with a cunning person like you!" Balrog was very unconvinced, but seeing the flames burning on his body, he didn't feel any pain at all, which was also a bit strange.

"I don't want those dirty souls, your souls aren't as high quality as those extensions I caught!" he said.

"Hey? Then what do you burn those people's bodies for? If you don't want souls, you don't need to kill them at all!" Zhou Ren asked again.

"Isn't that because of you damn humans, running to my area every day, and saying you want to punish evil! The rest wasn't burned by me!" Balrog said, "Can you get rid of this damn flame? I feel like I can't speak anymore!"

"It's possible!" Zhou Ren said, "I didn't expect those people's deaths to be like this, then what about the other people who have your contract?"

"My contracts are honest, they help me get out of trouble, and I help them fulfill their wishes!" Balrog said, "These people are greedy, and they want to leave after completing the task with my scroll. They can't even get out of this area, and they will be burned by my flames, why are there such stupid humans?"

"Humans are always blinded by interests, it's not impossible to understand!" Zhou Ren turned off the furnace fire, "You suddenly made me a little interested, but I would be very troubled if I couldn't use you to burn things, why don't you help me?"

He wasn't a person from this world, there was no reason why he couldn't cooperate with demons, especially since this demon in front of him seemed a little easy to talk to?

PS: The hard-working author is still coding during the National Day holiday, there will be three updates today, give me some tickets since I'm working so hard?