Lords of the Heavens

Chapter 341 Stone Man

"Xilulu!"

The tranquil night was shattered by the sound of hooves and neighing. Ten old, discarded horses, as if startled, galloped within the fortress walls, appearing as if they had suddenly appeared, giving the members of the night watch team a fright.

"Javier, Sith, take some men and bring these warhorses back."

Li Wei's voice rang out immediately, and the fortress instantly became lively, with everyone forgetting about where the warhorses came from.

The alloy gate opened, and Javier rode out first. After these days of training, he was already able to ride a three-star warhorse with incredible speed. In the end, his good physical condition and quick reflexes, coupled with the boost from the four-star cavalry card, made it quite easy.

Then Sith, Paul, and Jocelyn charged out. All of them were River Knights, and none of them looked down on anyone else. They had been craving horses for days, and as knights, they were incredibly frustrated to be without one.

"Don't come out, stay inside. Don't frighten the warhorses. The four of us are enough."

Jocelyn shouted and sent the other soldiers back, saying that too many people might not be a good thing.

"Congratulations, Boss Li!"

Thomas came over to offer his congratulations. Ten warhorses were no small sum; it was practically a blatant gift, something the current Ministry of the Interior could never afford.

"Not bad, are you not staying up all night tonight?"

Li Wei jokingly remarked that Thomas was truly an industry benchmark, the king of the kings.

"Hehe, I've already prepared the hundred acres of land allocated to me, so I'd like to ask when I can start planting?"

"We'll need to wait a few more days until the temperature stabilizes a bit. In the next few days, you can take some people to search the north and west. You're a three-star miner with a destiny of 48, so you should be able to find some good veins."

"Boss Li, I'm afraid I can't do it. I'm really not good at this. How about we ask Xuanxuan to come and explore for minerals?" Thomas actually looked hesitant. What the heck?

"Why? You're a three-star miner, what happened to your 48 destiny?" Li Wei was very curious because recently, his +6 perception seemed to have stopped working on Thomas, as if there was a black hole in him that wouldn't accept any detection.

"I don't know either. I felt like everything was normal, but for some reason, this is how it is. Other players also have the Stonemason + Miner combination, but none of them are like me. Especially for some reason, ever since I bound and activated that four-star Farmer card, my Miner fate has automatically fluctuated by one point, and it's currently at 49. I... I feel like I'm becoming more and more like a stone. I'm panicking, but not really panicking. I can hardly describe this feeling. I can only feel a little normal by working like crazy. I—"

Thomas couldn't continue speaking, as if he were constipated. In Li Wei's view, in the dark night, his expression gradually stiffened. He was clearly speaking, and he was clearly saying very rational things, but there was a feeling that he was about to turn into a stone man.

This scene seemed familiar to Li Wei.

That's right, Zhao Xuanxuan was like that when she broke through her limits. At that time, Zhao Xuanxuan was passionate and her hormones were raging. She almost tried to force herself on him.

Thomas now seems to be heading towards the other extreme.

Zhao Xuanxuan's was an explosion, while his was a contraction, a deathly stillness, as if the breath of life was being sealed away.

The key point is that Li Wei had never met him before and didn't know how to help him, so he could only watch as Thomas turned into a stone man amidst these bizarre words.

Yes, it just froze there.

"Ah-Dai, Ah-Dai, wake up! Go to your second aunt's place and tell her about Thomas's situation. Ask her what happened to him."

Li Wei had no choice but to ask for outside help.

Ah-Dai, who was fast asleep, barked angrily, took off quickly, and disappeared into the night in the blink of an eye.

Li Wei watched Thomas from the side, feeling uneasy; it was too strange.

Time passed by, and Javier, Sith, and the others had captured and calmed all the one-star warhorses. Thomas remained silent.

About three hours later, it was almost dawn. Ah-Dai flew back at top speed. Yes, the round trip was a thousand miles, which usually took Ah-Dai four hours, but now he got it done in just three hours.

"quack!"

Ah-Dai yelled and landed directly on Li Wei's head, leaving a pile of bird droppings on him.

However, Li Wei couldn't care less about that. He quickly untied the mental scroll from Ah Dai's paw, and Liang Yuzhi's anxious voice immediately came from inside.

"Thomas, that little trash, is about to awaken his dulled bloodline. He's going to turn into a stone man. Quickly throw him into a pile of stones, the better the quality the better. If there are no stones, use iron ingots instead, or any ordinary weapon or weapon will do. Also, don't let him see the morning sunlight the next day, otherwise he will turn into a stone man completely!"

"Fuck!"

Li Wei was taken aback. At that moment, the eastern horizon was turning white. It was really close!

He immediately hoisted the stone-like Thomas onto his shoulder and rushed to the basement. There was a warehouse there, containing the high-quality stone blocks that Scarface had previously quarried—stone blocks that wouldn't be damaged by fire. As soon as he placed Thomas on top of those stone blocks, a series of cracking sounds rang out. The once-solid stone blocks were beginning to crumble and collapse, as if Thomas had absorbed a large amount of the stone's essence.

"Javier, Sith, hurry, come help! Iron ingots, iron products!"

Li Wei shouted, and the group of people scrambled to stabilize the situation. Thomas also roared and recovered from his stiffness, but for some reason, his original 1.9-meter-tall frame collapsed and hunched over into a small stone figure less than a meter tall. He couldn't even speak and could only make gurgling sounds.

What the heck is going on?
Li Wei's heart stirred, and he took out a piece of enchanted fine steel that he had dismantled from the trap.

"Gumu, Gumu!"

Thomas was overjoyed and hugged the enchanted steel to his chest, but in the blink of an eye, the originally very hard and high-quality enchanted steel turned into rusty scrap iron.

Damn it?

I understand now. What he lacks is not stone, but magic.

There's nothing to say, just supply it. There's still plenty of material from the previously dismantled traps.

Meanwhile, Javier, Sith, and the others frantically moved stones in from outside. These stones were also what Thomas could currently absorb. Once the stones were gone, they drove out to move the concrete building blocks, which could also be considered stones.

So Li Wei supplied the magic, and they supplied the stones. They worked from dawn until afternoon, without even having time to eat, and finally managed to feed Thomas back to three meters tall.

He let out a satisfied roar one last time, then suddenly returned to normal and fell into a deep sleep.

So, does that mean I passed?
Li Wei felt a pang of heartache. Nearly five hundred sets of enchanting materials that could be used to make two-star traps had been used up. In terms of magic power, that was worth at least 20 units.

As expected, it's still too difficult to cultivate a few powerful subordinates.

In the evening, Liang Yuzhi drove her enchanted war chariot with Zhao Xuanxuan, still feeling uneasy.

After inspecting it, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's not a big problem. He's just eating too well, so he's gone to extremes in terms of dullness. This is not something to be encouraged. Extremes can easily lead to alienation, and the end of alienation is a magical zombie."

"Of course, as long as he survives, there won't be any danger. When he wakes up again, he should gain a talent skill or destiny skill that allows him to transform into a stone giant. He will become an excellent tank. It's worth mentioning that there was a player in the Ministry of the Interior who was similar."

"Next, let Xuanxuan explore for minerals here. Thomas should stop farming and becoming a butcher, because he'll be stuck with the fate of a stonemason and a miner for the rest of his life. Later, we'll have him remove his butcher job card and bind him to a four- or five-star job card that drops. Then, he can frantically stack attributes, equipment, and codenames. Once he's on the battlefield, he can just charge in without thinking, because he can be greatly immune to mental shocks, illusions, and even poison damage, or even completely immune to them."

"Furthermore, from now on, Thomas will never again experience intense emotions such as joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness. He hasn't become stupid or lost his memory; he understands everything in his heart but can't express it. He's like a real stone man, or someone trapped in stone. He will only believe those he believed before. Alas, this is the price of becoming stronger, and also a path of no return."

"Xiao Wei, don't let us down."

Thomas's choice left his second aunt speechless with regret.

Yes, Thomas could make a choice. How could he not understand the trajectory of his destiny? He could have taken a step back and moved towards mediocrity, but more than twenty years of torment and obsession made him insist on going down a dark path.

Li Wei still didn't understand the principle behind Thomas turning into a stone man, just as he didn't understand the principle behind the Druid's transformation card, but it didn't seem to matter anymore.

He has now become the source of confidence for everyone.

Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue regarded him as the last nursing home they could entrust to.

Zhao Xuanxuan was willing to follow him to the ends of the earth without hesitation.

Thomas took the risk because he trusted him and was also worried that he would fall behind and be abandoned.

Unbeknownst to him, his fate had become intertwined with that of so many others.

Looking back, that rainy autumn afternoon seems like a lifetime ago.

There is no way out!

Liang Yuzhi only stayed for a few minutes before driving the enchanted war chariot back, leaving Zhao Xuanxuan behind. They couldn't let their guard down in the territory. There were still some Nitan cross-borderers wandering around. It was unrealistic for that burly man to hunt them all down. He might launch a sneak attack one day, although that possibility was not very high because they couldn't expose themselves too much.

However, it is certain that the superhumans under Duke Frost's command will come to harass and disrupt development.

If we can't withstand the harassment, we should seize the opportunity to rapidly develop our forces now, because it will be too late next year.

(End of this chapter)