It doesn't matter what the lord is.

The six newly acquired cities of Southern Yan require some resources to be invested. Although these six cities, together with Fengyan City and Lianbo City, have not been severely exploited in Li Ze's hands, they are obviously not rich. They are basically at the average level of Yunyang Territory, and Yunyang is the lower-middle one among the thirty-six territories. After this calculation, Li De has an idea.

Apart from anything else, the city defense must be strengthened. There are many things in this world that Lide has never seen in his previous life, so he should follow the local customs. The cement formula must also be modified locally to achieve better results. He doesn't need to worry too much about this. The Northern Industrial Base has spent a lot of manpower and material resources on cement experiments. At present, the relevant research team is already familiar with city defense construction.

He Yue will also take some care of the six cities of Nanyan in the future from a policy perspective to speed up the development of these cities. Rivet City is located in a natural barrier, so the cities to the west of Rivet City are protected by a natural barrier. But the eight cities to the east have relatively open terrain, so they must seize the time to vigorously build them to avoid losing the chain in the next head-on confrontation.

Of course, Lid doesn't need to worry too much about these things. Zhenmo, Tiebi, Lieyang, Tianqi, and Rivet, these cities were once dilapidated, but now they are full of vitality under the management of Yuxi City. The top leaders of Yuxi City have already figured out a universal development plan. Lid only needs to do some things that they are not convenient to do at some appropriate times.

For example, a group of people came from the six cities of Nanyan two days ago, claiming to be representatives sent by the local nobles to negotiate. From their words, it can be seen that some conservative nobles in the six cities of Nanyan do not have a clear understanding of the current situation. Not only did they detain the officials and support materials sent by Yuxi City, they also claimed that the relationship between the two sides should be non-interference. In short, they can recognize that Lide is the new owner, but Lide must also ensure that they can occupy the dominant position in the six cities of Nanyan as before.

Li De smiled slightly and asked Sha Yan, the owner of Zhenweilou, to arrange a dinner. That night, he took Yun Ye to get several noble representatives drunk. First, he found out the big shots behind them, and then he took people to raid the homes of the nobles who made the most trouble.

Several of the leaders died, and the remaining undead also learned to play dead. Lide didn't bother with them too much. Yuxi City was in the expansion stage. If he killed too many people and aroused the hatred of the entire aristocracy, he would inevitably be resisted desperately when attacking other cities in the future, resulting in countless casualties.

In addition to clearing out some traitors and roadblocks, what Reed did most during this period was to study a new subject - a subject called "How can humans break through the tenth level."

He punched the King of the East Snake Eye in the demon clan's territory, and at that time he had exerted a strength close to the tenth level. After that, Lid could feel that his body had undergone significant changes. The tenth level was no longer an insurmountable chasm for him, but a bridge that he could cross if he wanted to. The problem was that he didn't know what the situation would be like on the other side of the bridge. The only thing he knew was that when he walked across the bridge, the bridge would collapse. He could cross it, but he couldn't go back, so Lid took this step very carefully.

Except Qingyun, Lid has never seen any human being go further after reaching the tenth level and see the scenery farther away.

The only reference case, Qingyun, also had his body disintegrate after surpassing human limits, so it cannot be considered a successful breakthrough.

If this is the price, then it is too heavy. If it were Lid, he would rather live a comfortable life and wait for death than be handsome for only three seconds and then disappear.

So he carefully recalled what Qingyun had said to him, as well as the scene described by Alaiya after Qingyun swung the Heavenly Sword. From the current situation, all clues point to the same result, that is, the human body cannot withstand such a violent force, and it will collapse on its own if it exceeds ten times. It is like forcing a Lamborghini engine into a second-hand Alto. It is simply too much to ask, and the Alto can't even drive it.

So is there any way to improve physical strength?

There are few records of this world, but when he used telepathy before, an old man who had already reached the level of a true immortal once boasted to him for a long time. Although he had never eaten pork, he had seen pigs run. Lid felt that his theoretical knowledge was sufficient. He thought it was worth a try to learn something like "bathing in a medicinal liquid made of natural materials and treasures, absorbing the liquid and expelling impurities, thus making the whole body more perfect and flawless."

The most valuable things Lide had now were the remaining dragon blood and some precious materials he brought back from the demons. Fortunately, thanks to the scientific method of refining medicine, there was a medicine storehouse in Yuxi City, and Lide selected several precious herbs from it to neutralize the strong taste of dragon blood. He studied the ratio himself, made a pool of medicine liquid and soaked in it.

To sum it up simply, it's as stimulating as taking a bath in Fengyoujing.

He couldn't describe the feeling, but he would never forget that sour feeling in his life.

After a few seconds of lifeless eyes, Lid grabbed the edge of the bathtub, flipped over and jumped out, shouting from the bottom of his heart, waking up everyone in the City Lord's Mansion. That day, in the shocked eyes of everyone, Lid, naked, covered his lower body, took a vigorous step, rushed out of the bathroom at the speed of a 100-meter race, and jumped into the pond in the City Lord's Mansion. At that moment, it was like concentrated sulfuric acid entering the water, with a crackling sound.

After a while, Reed climbed out of the water and returned to the bathtub unwillingly.

After an afternoon of hard attempts, Reed finally absorbed all the liquid in the bathtub.

Alaia saw with her own eyes that her young master was in great pain in the bathtub at first, then collapsed in a sage mode, and finally showed an expression of enjoyment. When Lid climbed out of the bathtub that night, his hands were shaking slightly. He clenched his fists and felt the power flowing in his body. He found that the hard work of this afternoon did have some effect.

The power in the body has not changed at all, and the realm is still stuck at the ninth level of perfection, but the strength of the body has improved slightly, and the tendons, flesh, blood, and bones are much stronger than before. It is obvious that it can accommodate and use more power.

Because the dragon blood was exhausted, he couldn't make another pool of liquid medicine, but this at least proved that this path was feasible. This was a new experience for him who had reached the ceiling a long time ago. Lid estimated that he would not have the opportunity to contact the upper three tribes in a short time, but if he could get more core bloodlines of the middle six tribes like O'Frant, he could definitely become stronger.

But Reid still felt something was wrong.

The blood essence of the Dragon King Nine Sons did not improve his physical strength as much as he had imagined. Logically speaking, the human body should have greatly increased after absorbing the blood essence of the dragon clan. But he could only keep this question in mind for the time being. After all, there was no way to investigate such things. At this stage, this method was useful, which was enough for him.

3. This is the real black flame armor

It was not easy to get more blood from the core members of the Sixth Clan. After all, Ofland, who was a core bloodline but had not passed the tenth level, was already a special case. It was impossible to expect to get such a bargain every time. Even Lid did not dare to dream of such a beautiful dream.

But this time, heading north, he would have to leave Yongtian Kingdom and explore the unknown area in the giants' territory. Although he didn't hold out much hope, Lid still planned to prepare well and seize the opportunity if it came. After all, he had no plans to go there for sightseeing, fighting monsters and leveling up in the short term. If he accidentally let something go this time, he would probably regret it for the rest of his life.

Lid first found Liu Shi and gave him the [Black Flame Armor] he brought back from the royal capital to try to repair.

The Black Flame Armor is one of the only two He Xun-level weapons he has, and the other one, the Nameless Staff, has been handed over to Fileta. Although Fileta cannot fully exert the true power of the staff, thanks to the magic amplification ability of the Nameless Staff, Fileta was able to successfully defend Lianbo City in the battle with Li Yi.

But the Black Flame Armor had been gathering dust for a long time. It was made of countless tiny iron rings, and the material should be quite precious. Anyway, it was the first time that Reed had seen it in this world. The forging was ingenious, but the connection was a little lacking. When Reed and Ofland fought, the chain of the Black Flame Armor also collapsed, and countless tiny buckles scattered all over the ground.

Fortunately, these iron rings were finally recovered successfully, and Reid brought them back to Yuxi City from Tianyue Mountain.

Before Liushi joined the group, Lid had not found a way to repair the Black Flame Armor, so he put the matter on hold. But now that the most talented blacksmith in Lid's eyes is here, the matter of repairing the hand armor is naturally on the agenda.

"…This is the situation. Any ideas?"

Liu Shi was staring blankly at a pile of iron rings. Reed, who was standing in front of him, waited for a long time before asking.

Liu Shi stared at the iron ring in his hand and said after a while:

"It's a troublesome job."

Liu Shi raised his head. There were still dark circles around his eyes, but the fatigue on his face was gone. There even seemed to be a faint fire burning in his eyes, and there were signs of a crazy smile. He looked at Lid and answered in a steady voice:

"But—it can be done. Just leave it to me."

Lide felt that Liushi was indeed reliable. However, Liushi threw him a long list of materials in a blink of an eye, and each item was extremely expensive. According to Liushi, although the basic materials for the Black Flame Armor were all there, repairing equipment of [He Xun] level would require a large number of precious materials. Fortunately, Lide still had a few dragon scales in his hands, which could serve as a superior substitute for many rare materials. It took a lot of effort to get everything together.

After carefully checking each material, Liushi first slept for a whole day to recuperate, and then locked himself in the underground forging room. Except for Amo who brought him food every day, Liushi did not allow anyone to disturb his forging. In the city lord's mansion, faint fanatical laughter could often be heard day and night. Judging from the leftovers brought back by Amo, Liushi ate very little at each meal. Amo could only carry these leftovers to the yard to feed the stray cats every night.

About ten days later, Liu Shi came out of the basement wearing a new pair of gauntlets. He looked thinner, but his face was full of energy. He handed the gauntlets to Lid and said to him:

"The repair is complete. I heard it was called the [Black Flame Armor], but in fact its original flame properties have almost been buried by the dust of time. This time is different. I have re-tempered it and used many kinds of materials to stimulate its properties again. Now it can be called a [He Xun] level equipment."

Reed placed the gauntlet in his palm, and every buckle on it became shiny again.

Liu Shi continued:

"But in my opinion, although this pair of gloves is powerful, it is also like a wild beast that is difficult to tame. After all, this is one of the top equipment in the world. Whether you want to use it yourself or give it to someone else, you must be careful... If the wearer's realm and cultivation are not high enough, the black flames that are triggered may directly turn him into ashes."

Lid nodded to show that he understood, and Liushi didn't say much. After giving the gauntlet to Lid, he seemed to be exhausted. He first went to the kitchen to pick up two cucumbers and ate them with a crunch, then went back to the room and fell asleep, his snoring was like thunder shaking the sky.

Reed casually put the black flame armor on his right hand. Unlike last time, this time he felt a distinct burning sensation.

Black flames surged fiercely on the back of the glove, roaring at him like a dragon. Just like a beast that had been locked in a cage finally saw the light of day, the flames rushed towards Lid. But the next moment, Lid slapped the fire dragon to pieces with a slap, and pressed his left hand directly on the back of his right hand, blocking the source of the flames.

Black smoke came out from his palms.

After a moment, Lid removed his palm. The fierce black flames had become extremely quiet, with only a cluster of flames still dancing quietly on the back of his hand. Looking at the palm of his left hand, the wound was shocking. Large pieces of flesh were directly charred, and the blood that should have flowed out was directly sealed in the flesh by the high temperature. Fortunately, there were no irreversible injuries left.

Just as Lid expected. If all things really have spirits, then the black fire's roar against him should be more of a test, rather than a real attempt to devour him. Otherwise, the black flames emitted by equipment of [He Xun] level are simply not something that ordinary mortals can withstand. Even a master of the tenth level would be skinned alive.

Judging from its posture, it should have recognized its master. I don’t know whether I should thank it for showing mercy.

Reed smiled, took off the black flame armor, and kept it close to his body for use in case of emergency.

In addition to the right weapons, Lid also needs to obtain enough information about the giants. This is also quite troublesome. The information about the giants in the world is mainly concentrated in two places, one is the treasury of the Lingwu Lord, and the other is the Tiance Mansion in the capital. Lid has no access to these two places for the time being. Although he can write a letter to ask Wumi or Lana to send some information, it is a bit too late. When Wumi and Lana receive the news, he is probably on the way to Lingwu.

Lid first went to the elf princess Delis and asked her if she knew any news about the giants, but Delis replied that no one knew about that kind of thing. The elves lived in the deep mountains and forests, while the giants lived in the extremely cold north. The two sides did not have any intersection.

Lid originally planned to give up and wait until Lingwu could make up for some knowledge about the giants, but he suddenly tapped his palm and suddenly remembered that there was someone in Yuxi City who might be able to act as a guide...

4. Instant Slime Killing Formation

As soon as Reed stepped into the gate of the demon breeding farm, he immediately felt that the atmosphere had suddenly changed.

The light seemed to dim suddenly, and the cold wind around made people's backs feel cold.

A circle of black shadows surrounded him, and he could hear countless voices whispering in the darkness:

"Oh, this smells like... a human."

"It's been so long, I thought we had been forgotten."

"How dare you enter our forbidden area? You are so brave - human! Disrespect, this is absolutely a crime of blasphemy!"

"Great Creator! Our Creator! Please sentence this man to the most serious sin! Let us see the light again!"

"Darkness, the age of darkness is coming! We don't have to endure the long torture here any longer!"

"Kukuku~ What fresh blood! Is this the sacrifice we are about to enjoy? I can, I really can!"

"Kill him! Kill him!"

Countless similar voices were heard, and the dark shadows around seemed to be stirring.

Suddenly, a beam of light appeared in front of me, and a round figure wearing a cloak appeared on the platform. It turned its back to Lid and shouted in a loud voice:

"Don't be impatient!"

Then it turned around, and there were two lines on its fat body, just like a person squinting his eyes. Although it had no mouth, there were three tufts of white whiskers where the mouth should be, indicating that this thing must have a great origin. The little slime dressed as a king looked around, coughed, and said in a serious manner:

"Everyone, although this human has committed a heinous crime, he still has a little value at the moment. That is, he can provide food for me! Biji... the last dragon heart has greatly increased my strength. If you can bring me something good this time, I will forgive you for trespassing into the forbidden area without permission! Sa, come on, quickly present the tribute to me!"

Lid fumbled in his pocket for a long time, clenched his fists, and stretched them towards the little slime in a serious manner. Under the little slime's shining eyes, he suddenly turned his hands over, and his palms were empty:

"Nothing, no surprise, no surprise."

The little slime was so angry that it was smoking. It jumped eight feet high, hit the ceiling directly and fell down again, protesting loudly:

"Rogue! Bastard! Big liar! Shameless! Guilty, I will sentence you to the crime of deceiving the king! My subjects, obey my call! The army of small slimes——!"

Several beams of light shone down, illuminating the shadows surrounding Lid in the darkness. They were all small slimes, and they all looked similar, with only a little difference in their clothes. Some looked like priests, some looked like noble ladies, and some looked like ragged beggars. Now all these little guys were bouncing lightly on the ground, looking at Lid eager to try.

King Slime standing on the platform gave an order and raised the staff that split from his body high above his head. All the slimes jumped towards Lid together as if they had heard the sound of a starting gun.

Then, Reed slapped them all over the head in an instant, and all of them fell to the ground.

Lid picked up a branch from the ground expressionlessly and opened the curtains, and the sunlight immediately filled the room. It turned out that the spotlight effect just now was just a stunt created by the slimes poking the curtains with long wooden sticks. I don't know how long these little guys got together to rehearse in order to create this scene.

Lid pointed at the slimes dressed in strange costumes and asked the leader:

"What are they?"

King Slime said proudly:

“Kukuku, you didn’t expect this, did you? Human. These are my companions! After noticing that I was imprisoned, they immediately rushed to my side and finally reunited with me! Let me show you, this is our wholehearted efforts—”

Reed slapped it on the head again.

King Slime coughed twice and said mysteriously:

"I was just joking. Do you want to know what this is? If you want to know, go and look for it. I have long buried the truth in the long river of history. Over the long years, I have realized that the power of a slime is limited after all. This is my secret technique - Shadow Clone Technique! You were careless, you will pay the price for your carelessness! You have been fooled!"

Several slimes rushed forward from behind, but Reed blew them all away without even turning his head.

In the blink of an eye, the little slime was caught in Lid's hand and squeezed and flattened. It was so arrogant just now, but in the blink of an eye, it began to beg for mercy at the speed of light. It grabbed Lid's wrist with its wet and slippery body, and cried half coquettishly and half complainingly:

“Ah—I said it, that’s what I said! It’s so boring here, and you didn’t come to see me. I was bored alone, so I split into many emotionless stand-ins to chat with me. I also want to go out and see the scenery outside! Let me go, let me go out and play—!!”

Lid stretched it to the point where he couldn't speak, and then looked down at the slimes that had just spoken. They really didn't have the most important core of slimes. They looked like puppets. Although Lid thought that these slimes were like mass-produced dough compared to the delicate puppets, in the eyes of the slimes that looked like dough, these substitutes were probably lifelike.

The white beard stuck on his face also fell off, and the slime held Reed's hand stubbornly, as if it wanted to stick to him and not get off.

Judging from the feeling of getting it, the little slime has obviously become stronger now. Its realm has reached the sixth level of perfection. If it intends to sneak away from here, the employees of the demon breeding farm will not be able to find it at all. But perhaps the little slime itself knows that there are far more dangers outside than inside, so it is just rolling around in front of Lid and will never really sneak out.

After the little slime digested the semi-crystallized heart of Ovland, the core of its body became noticeably brighter. And there were faint red lines in its transparent body. Although not very obvious, the red lines extending from the heart looked like blood vessels.

"If you want to get out, there is indeed a way. But before that, you have to answer a question for me."

Lid let go of the hand holding the little slime, held its bulging body in his palm, stared at it and said:

"You said before that you were a decisive weapon in ancient times, and you can translate ancient characters very well. Now that your realm has been improved, have you recalled anything about other races? Not limited to the grudges between the old gods and the demons, are there any things that seem insignificant to you, such as information about the giants?"

The little slime was stunned for a moment, then moved forward and asked:

"If I remember, will you take me out to play?"

Reed nodded.

The little slime immediately straightened up proudly and said in a long voice:

"Oh~ So you want to know news about the giants. What a coincidence! I happen to know some things, definitely much more than you humans know. Do you want to hear it? You must really want to hear it! Kukuku~ Then please beg me~ Lower your head! Make a solemn request to me! Is this how you beg, human?"

5. Add the little slime to the team

After being rubbed by Reed, the little slime finally understood the pain of living under someone else's roof.

It was Lid who begged him to do something, but the little slime could not get any benefit from it. As Lid tossed his small body back and forth, the little slime finally couldn't help but beg for mercy. In the past, the little slime became stronger in order to rebel against the old gods who had stabbed him in the back, but now the little slime has a more direct reason.

When I become stronger in the future, I will throw this bastard around like a ball!

But now we still have to be timid.

"Beji... As for the giants, I don't know what they have become now. But when I was still alive, they were already active on earth! I heard that they were created by Kungu, one of the three upper tribes. They have huge bodies and strong skin. They are insensitive to pain and can fight normally even if they are injured. Although there are rumors that the back of the neck is more fragile, there is no actual proof."

The little slime stood in Lid's palm and continued to tell him what he knew:

"Generally speaking, those guys are very difficult to deal with. After all, they once attacked the Temple of Heaven. I once heard from those winged guys that Kungu and the Old Gods are natural enemies, but one lives under the deep sea and the other lives above the nine heavens, which are completely different dimensional realms. There are relatively few chances of direct conflicts. The only place where Kungu can touch the ground is the iceberg in the far north, so the giants were born in that place. Also, generally speaking, high-level giants are much smarter than you humans, and the intelligence level of low-level giants is almost like that of monkeys, but they are far inferior to me, Biji."

Although there was not much actually useful information, what the little slime said was indeed something that Reed had never heard of before.

None of the historical documents he has access to so far mention the origin of the giants. They only say that these guys came from the ice field and often invaded the human border. Most of them are over 20 meters tall and have great destructive power. They can smash a team of armored soldiers into meat paste with one punch.

There is no clear record of the reason why the giants moved south. But one thing that can be confirmed is that food and territory plunder definitely played a role. The northernmost part of Yongtian Kingdom is already known as a bitter cold land. Further north, it snows all year round, and there is no sunshine for many years. There are no crops, and the number of animals is also very small. Except for some extremely cold-resistant plants and abundant fish and shrimp under the icebergs, the giants have almost no food source. So every year they visit Yongtian Kingdom countless times and abduct a large number of humans as food.

"[Kungu]... I didn't expect that the giants were related to the upper three tribes. What else do you know about the upper three tribes? Can you tell me a little bit?"

This time the little slime shook his head and replied: