Lords of the Heavens

Chapter 412 Blazing Emblem (Bonus Chapter 410 for the Alliance Leader's Monthly Card Recommendation)

The moment he finished his loud oath, an extremely magnificent noble coat of arms, enveloped in a ball of flame, descended from the sky!

Even Li Wei saw a phantom of a fire dragon within this ball of flames.

This must be at least a Sequence 4 magic emblem!
Just as Li Wei was about to reach out to catch it, the blazing emblem transformed into a giant fire dragon, swallowing him whole. In that instant, he felt as if his entire body and even his soul were being burned by the flames, with excruciating pain like a tidal wave and a splitting headache.

The whole process lasted only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity.

He even felt as if he had turned to ashes.

But eventually, he returned to normal, and then he found himself kneeling on one knee, drenched in sweat. The fire dragon was gone, and only a beautiful, mysterious, and sacred flaming noble emblem remained quietly in his hand.

At the same time, he also sensed that his mental strength had suddenly increased by 5 points. Was this a benefit brought about by being devoured by the fire dragon?
Li Wei dared not think too much, nor did he dare to get up, mainly because his body was in too much pain, and the feeling of being burned by the flames was still vivid in his mind.

But it seems that the king's envoy has already left.

Everyone else left as well, it seemed the ceremony was over, but what about my task completion?

At that moment, a familiar voice rang out; it was Night Owl.

"Li Wei, I am the Night Owl, the guardian of Thorn Pass. I am now conducting the second stage of your mission settlement certification and defining the basic outline of your territory. From this moment on, you are a four-star lord of the All-Heavens Lords Alliance. Your main city will have the qualification to open the Magic Anywhere Door for free. From now on, you can travel from your main city to most cities within the Kingdom of Locke."

"Now, I will explain the relevant matters to you. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me."

As he spoke, Li Wei felt the light and shadow around him shift, and the next moment, he found himself in Night Owl's study, kneeling on one knee in front of Night Owl. What the heck?

So this is the city of Ver?
"Get up, what are you still kneeling for?" Night Owl's voice rang out again.

"No, sir, what about the mission settlement?" Li Wei struggled to his feet, utterly puzzled.

"It's in progress, Li Wei. You are now a powerful viscount in the Kingdom of Locke, and also a powerful four-star lord in the Alliance of Lords of the Heavens. Don't underestimate yourself. Your status has already determined that you don't need to be as cautious as before. Would you like some tea, coffee, or an iced drink?"

Night Owl chuckled, his voice gentle, giving Li Wei the feeling that all the Night Owls he had seen before were fake, and this one was the real one.

But this really made Li Wei feel uneasy.

"No, thank you. I'm not thirsty."

"Alright then, normally Duke Will should personally oversee the second phase of this mission settlement for you, but he doesn't have time. The pressure on the front lines is immense, as you're probably aware of. Hmm, let me explain first."

"First of all, although you have already taken the oath, from now on, your relationship with the royal family will only be limited to 25% of the annual tax. The king will not interfere in the affairs of your territory, and there will be no imperial envoys with the sword of authority to secretly investigate. Absolutely not. Not only the king, but Duke Will will not do such a thing either. You need to manage your territory yourself. If you don't manage it well and your income is insufficient to cover your expenses, no one will bail you out. You can just go bankrupt."

"Secondly, you need to understand the rights and obligations you will bear in the future. Since you are now Duke Will's direct subordinate, you should do your best to solve Duke Will's problems. In addition to participating in a cross-border mission or conquest mission every five years, you can also take on other positions, such as the chief or deputy chief executive officer of various departments, just like I used to be the chief executive officer of the Ministry of the Interior."

"Of course, you can theoretically choose to refuse, but you must understand that taking on these positions allows you to select some outstanding talents for your territory and earn some clearance tokens, because once your current mission is completed, you will never be able to obtain clearance tokens of Black Iron or higher in the world where your territory is located."

"Don't think that there's any more valuable wealth waiting for you to seize on the planet where your territory is located. There isn't. The ancient magical remnants in that snow mountain will be extracted, and the intensity of the radiation storm will decrease until it becomes negligible. Without the Ice Duke and without the Neanderthal cross-borderers causing trouble, your territory and the planet you're on will quickly become a low-magic world."

"This is inevitable, not accidental, because in a sense, we have already completed the rescue plunder of this planet. Do you understand what I mean? Everything that could be taken has been taken. The King took away the Ice Duke, a magical talent, and all his subordinates. Duke Will took away the ancient magical remnants in the snow mountain. And I, through you and Hathaway, obtained enough support to allow me to gain a foothold in Thorn Pass. In the future, Thorn Pass may even be upgraded to Thorn Province."

"As for you, you have gained a territory, a portion of the Ice Duke's men, and five thousand free citizens. We have all benefited, and we all have a bright future."

"To be honest, if it weren't for the Nigans causing trouble and severely injuring Duke Frost, thus preventing the establishment of Frost Province, you would have experienced the nightmare of being gradually devoured by Frost Province."

"Li Wei, you must understand this: unless the Neanderthals still have your eyes on you and want to invade and destroy you, the greatest use of your territory and that planet will be to train new people and, incidentally, issue some chaotic killing missions of three-star difficulty. The moment you complete the expansion and city-building mission will be your peak."

"It's impossible to get dozens or hundreds of four-star universal gold cards in one battle like before."

"However, you are quite clever. You know to exchange the Universal Gold Card for legal territory. Note that the legal territory you retain is the greatest wealth. Other illegal territories are only considered wealth if the magic stored in the magic mine is also considered wealth."

"So I'm telling you frankly, if you don't take up these positions, your territory will only last for another 100 to 150 years at most before it goes bankrupt, or even if you do take up these positions, you still can't avoid bankruptcy."

"You need to always understand one thing: territory is the stepping stone for you to climb higher. Of course, if you are powerful enough and every cross-border mission is very profitable, then disregard what I said. But the Neanderthals hate you. They hate you so much. Before, they didn't even dare to rush into Hathaway's territory to kill the Ice Duke. Tsk tsk, all of this has fallen on your shoulders."

"The more tolerant they are of you, the stronger their backlash will be."

"In addition, there are other benefits to holding these positions. For example, if you serve as the Chief Home Officer for five years, you can postpone your participation in cross-border missions by one year. If you accumulate 25 years as the Chief Home Officer, you can postpone it by five years. You need to understand that this is very important."

"In fact, I have accumulated five years of experience using this method. Now I have not participated in cross-border missions for nine years. This has given me enough time to accumulate my strength and finally break through at the critical moment to become a fourth-tier spellcaster. I may even be able to seize the opportunity to step forward and turn the tide in the current crisis of Thorn Pass. It can be said that if Thorn Pass can successfully upgrade to Thorn Province in the future, it will be closely related to my decades of planning."

Night Owl spoke eloquently, and Li Wei listened with trepidation and a headache, because he knew he couldn't do what Night Owl did.

At this moment, Night Owl said again:

"However, if you really don't want to work in a department, you can choose to go to the front line for defense, or even choose to be free from official duties and just manage your own territory, participating in a cross-border mission every five years. It's okay, as long as you are strong enough to ensure the development of your territory is not a problem."

"Now that I've said my piece, do you have any questions?" "Thank you, sir. I'd like to know about the territory of Shengweika, and the magical main world where the Kingdom of Locke is located. What's the story behind that?"

Li Wei immediately asked. He had no right to ask before, and it would have been useless to ask, but now he had to find out something. He was very interested in the golden palace he had just seen.

"The Territory Upgrade Card is a six-star item card. One card can upgrade ten square kilometers of territory. With your current legal territory of 190 square kilometers, you would need at least nineteen cards."

"As for what the main magical world is, it is the world that those ancient magicians once lived in. However, due to the impact of the chaotic surge of the magical source, their world was broken into countless fragments. These fragments vary in size, some as large as a continent, covering tens of millions of square kilometers, while others may be only the size of a fingernail. So you understand now, right? The capital of the Kingdom of Locke is built on a huge fragment of the world. And the so-called dimensional ascension does not allow you to ascend your territory to that fragment of the world, but rather it is like a series of small satellites, flying alongside it."

"By the way, I can also answer a related question for you. Do you know why our great six-star lord is also the king of the Kingdom of Locke?"

"The answer lies in the huge fragment of the world he occupies. In that fragmented continent, there is an ancient, lost Kingdom of Locke, which existed in the era before the ancient magicians caused chaos in the origin of magic. This country has more than a dozen provinces, one of which is called the Province of Ver, another called the Province of Juniper, and yet another called the Province of Kader. According to the excavated documents, there was also a Province of Thorns."

“Li Wei, none of this is accidental, including your Flame Viscount. Do you think that Ice Duke calls himself the Ice Duke? It’s because he obtained a special magic from ancient times, so he gained the identity of the Ice Duke.”

"Even the code names we are now demanding have their own lineage in the era of ancient magicians. You may think that the code name you have obtained is something you have worked hard to get, but in reality, it is an ancient resonance that has transcended countless years."

"Even our class cards are closely related to that ancient magical era."

"So, do you have any other questions?"

The owl asked again, surprisingly patiently.

"Thank you, sir. I have no further questions."

"very good!"

As soon as Night Owl finished speaking, the surrounding light and shadows shifted, and Li Wei was once again transported to the top of a planet. He then descended with lightning speed until he appeared fifty kilometers directly above Li Wei's main city.

Looking down from here, you can vaguely see his tiny territory's main city.

"Alright, let's officially begin the mission settlement. You now have a total of 190 square kilometers of legal territory. How would you like to demarcate it?"

As he spoke, Night Owl waved his hand, and the Exploration Card within Li Wei's body automatically activated, transforming into a super-large magical shield that landed on the ground, instantly forming an area of ​​190 square kilometers.

"I remind you, this magical shield was purchased from the legendary shop of the Alliance of All-Heavens Lords by our great six-star lord. It has the advantages of strong defense, an effective lifespan of up to 300 years, and very low energy consumption. However, it is best to set it to a circle from the beginning. This is the optimal shape, which not only maximizes the defense but also minimizes energy consumption and makes it easy to repair."

"And if you want to set it into a rectangle or some other weird shape, then don't blame me for not warning you. In that case, the durability of the magic shield may be reduced by half, and the defense power will also be reduced by half, or even worse."

"What if it's an oval shape?" Li Wei asked at this moment, because if it were a perfect circle, it would be quite different from his plan, with a diameter of less than 16 kilometers.

"It's oval-shaped, so it should be discounted by 20%."

this--

Li Wei frowned as he looked at the ground, then asked again, "Does the center of my magic shield have to be located in the main city?"

"It's best to set it up in the main city, especially near the mage tower. This makes it easier to maintain and supply magic. With the size of your territory, this kind of magic shield will consume 19 units of magic per year. But if the center is too far away, the consumption will increase by one unit for every five kilometers. If it reaches the edge, the consumption will be even greater. You can give it a try!"

That sounds pretty good. It's worth the little bit of magic. We can't give up the fertile fields in the northern valleys.

At that moment, Li Wei pointed with his hand, and the magic shield formed by the Expansion Card slowly moved ten kilometers north, arriving at the location of the Northern Fortress. In this way, the main city and the mage tower were both within the magic shield, but the annual consumption would reach 21 units.

Similarly, at least half of the mountain plains north of the northern fortress were included, which is tens of thousands of acres of land.

continue!

He moved another five kilometers north, so that the main city and the mage tower were almost at the edge of the magic shield. It would consume 22 units of magic power every year, but it would include almost the entire mountain plain north of the northern fortress, which was not much different from Li Wei's original plan.

Moreover, it encompasses many of the mountains on both sides, which is excellent.

"Are you sure?"

"Sure!"

As soon as Li Wei finished speaking, a golden light descended from the sky. In an instant, the magical shield burst forth with a soft blue light. Apart from Li Wei and Night Owl, the people on the ground felt nothing at all.

At the same time, Li Wei also had a white magic card in his hand, which was the card that could control the magic shield.

Aside from not being able to move its position, other functions include fine-tuning the magic reserves within the territory, fine-tuning the yield of farmland, absorbing and drawing in chaotic magic particles from the outside world, and so on.

not bad.

"Very good, the second phase of the mission settlement is complete. Next, the Minister of Taxation of the capital and the Chief Tax Officer of the Tax Department under Duke Will will conduct the third phase of the mission settlement for you. Good luck."

(End of this chapter)