Lords of the Heavens

Chapter 437 Journey to the Wilderness
The weather is pretty good today, and it's been like this for a while now. Occasionally you can see green wild grass under the stones by the roadside, which stands out in the season when everything is withered and yellow, as if it is loudly mocking winter, saying, "Come here, come here!"

He was very smug.

Li Wei felt like a weed, leading more than 400 refugees without shelter, fleeing in the wilderness, and in winter no less. What a start this was.

"Everyone, speed up!"

"Keep up, don't fall behind!"

Li Wei kept running between the front and back rows, holding a potion made from stamina-boosting medicine. Whenever someone couldn't hold on any longer, he would give them a sip.

Not only that, he also summoned his five-star warhorse, put a frame on its back, and sat more than twenty children on it. They couldn't walk, and it would be very tiring for the adults to carry them, so his five-star warhorse had to work hard for the time being.

Of course, you could also make a carriage, but that would leave too obvious traces.

It's winter now, and the withered grass on the ground hasn't completely lost its moisture. It feels soft and spongy when you step on it, and it doesn't matter if it breaks. In just a few more days, when the wind blows, even more grass stems will break, and you can get away with it.

Of course, if a scout is determined to investigate, it can't be kept secret. So Li Wei would occasionally set up a few traps in some obvious locations as a little gift for his colleagues.

Since they've come this far, they definitely don't intend to let this go peacefully, so we can only try to reason with them.

He may not be good at charging into battle, but he has never been afraid of anyone in a one-on-one fight in the wild!
That day, Li Wei used up ten three-star stamina potions to successfully carry the group of old farmers sixty miles in one go. It was really not easy!

But this is just the beginning.

We need to set up camp. There are no tents, but there can be a temporary campsite.

Finding a spot, Li Wei took out a large pile of wooden planks and smashed them on the ground to create ten open wooden frames, just enough to block the wind. Then he took out some quilts and blankets and distributed them to families.

We should still thank Earl Windbreak for at least upholding the most basic humanistic concern. These free people may have been poor and ignorant before, but at least they were not freezing or starving.

It is really important that every household has some warm clothing and bedding.

As night fell completely, Li Wei set up a stove in a specially made wooden frame and cooked several large pots of meat porridge. There was no other way now; he had to do everything himself. Oh, and by the way, he continued to teach Chris and the others some details about wilderness survival.

These five scout recruits, whom he had previously looked down upon, are likely to be the ones he can use next, the ones who can most accurately understand his intentions.

After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill and then huddled together to quickly fall asleep, Li Wei then had Chris and the other four keep watch, and practice deploying and dismantling traps.

Then he would turn back and deal with the traces that he didn't have time to deal with during the day, retrieve the traps, and at the same time, use the current route as a baseline to conduct a rapid reconnaissance of the surrounding area within a hundred miles.

After confirming that there were no followers, he did not rest, but went ahead, to the northeast. He had to go into the mountains; there was no way to build a camp on this flat wilderness.

Interestingly, this world seemed to be in a feudal agricultural era more than two hundred years ago, so there were large tracts of uncultivated land everywhere, let alone paved roads.

But magic must have been very scarce in this world before.

That night, Li Wei traveled over a thousand miles and successfully found a barely suitable area to build a camp 150 miles northeast of the city. It was a low hill, none of which was more than 100 meters high, with sparse trees all around and not even a river.

The good news is that this place was originally a village. Of course, two hundred years have passed, and it has long since fallen into ruin, but the broken stone slabs hidden in the withered grass are enough to prove it.

Moreover, the village seems to have a well that has been submerged by sandstorms.

Overall, it's pretty good.

There was really no other choice, because going east would mean traveling several hundred miles to reach even higher mountainous areas, and there wasn't enough time. Li Wei felt that within seven days, this early winter's mild spring would have to say goodbye to him.

However, if we set up camp here, at our current pace, we can reach this place in three days.

Before dawn, Li Wei silently returned to the temporary camp. He called Chris over, gave him a three-star resource card filled with tools and stones, and another resource card filled with water and food.

"Follow the direction I point out, travel 150 li, and you will see the mark I left. The five of you go first, taking ten craftsmen who can build houses and forty strong laborers, and set off immediately to build a temporary camp and quickly dig the foundation, as we will have to stay there permanently in the future."

"Go."

Li Wei summoned another three-star giant crow, took out a three-star pet card, and gave the hunting pet and the pet card to Chris. What else could he do, right? He'd just have to make do.

Chris and his group of 55 people set off quickly after a simple breakfast. They were all strong and capable men, and no one was holding them back. They should arrive by this evening.

Then, Li Wei began to start a fire and cook for the other refugees. All of this had to be finished before dawn, otherwise the smoke from the fire would become a very conspicuous target.

As dawn broke, Li Wei woke the refugees, fed them breakfast, and prepared to depart.

This process was truly agonizing, because Li Wei would then have to deal with their excrement.

Sin!
Fortunately, the journey of fleeing with families is gradually getting back on track. These ignorant refugees are not a problem. Li Wei only needs to scold them once, and they will never make the same mistake again. Perhaps they also know that they are dragging Li Wei down. Anyway, at least there are no troublemakers. Everyone is doing their best to keep going. Even the children are sensible and do not cry.

Sometimes Li Wei would sigh and feel that these refugees at least had some rare qualities, namely, the ability to endure hardship. In that case, he had to thank Earl Fengxi for it. In any case, three days later, Li Wei finally succeeded in bringing the more than four hundred refugees to the future camp.

Here, Chris, who had arrived two days earlier, was leading craftsmen to dig out the foundation of the small village that had been abandoned two hundred years ago. They removed the weeds and dug the foundation according to the traces left by Li Wei. They also dug thirty simple dugouts.

It's basically digging a hole, laying wooden planks on top, and that can temporarily shield you from the wind and cold.

After the refugees arrived, Li Wei did not dare to slack off at all. He immediately took out all kinds of building materials and living supplies that he had previously scavenged from Gale Fortress and Mountain Bay Village, and redistributed them according to the families!

Then these refugees were housed in dugouts.

Haha, I've finally gotten this first step done.

His stamina potions, which his aunt had prepared for him, were almost all used up.

However, we won't need stamina potions anymore.

Next, Li Wei let everyone rest, as the long journey had indeed exhausted them, and they would resume formal work tomorrow.

However, he couldn't rest on his own. After making dinner, he began to make more detailed plans for the campsite.

First, a castle is essential, and it must be built on a hill, which would give it a commanding position to attack the enemy from above.

Of course, there's no time to start construction right now; we just need to plan the location.

Therefore, the priority should be to build shelters for refugees. This is the most urgent task, because in winter, the lack of housing for warmth is a major problem.

"But these are just normal things. With me here, they can't freeze to death. The real challenge is training them. Let's not even talk about the old men and women; they have no room for growth. But those under thirty or forty years old need to be trained, they need to grow, they need to gain experience and get professional cards."

Li Wei was strolling in the night, the prestige stone in his hand glowing slightly with his thoughts. Hmm, this prestige stone seems to allow him to explore deeper than the prestige card.

In the blink of an eye, he was slightly taken aback. Good heavens, this Prestige Stone actually has a hidden function, or rather, it's not exactly hidden, it's just incredibly powerful.

When the loyalty of all free citizens to their lord reaches 95 or higher, an experience-sharing mode can be adopted. This means that all surplus experience held by free citizens will be forcibly extracted, pooled together, and prioritized for crafting profession cards, thus achieving the effect of concentrating resources to accomplish major tasks.

[Friendly reminder: All free citizens currently have a loyalty level of 100 to you, out of a possible 100. This loyalty will form a strong imprint that will not only remain for a long time, but will also ensure that these free citizens' next three generations are grateful for your kindness. Each generation will only lose 10 points of loyalty.]

However, if you do something outrageous, your loyalty will still drop.

[Note: This is a hidden mode that can only be activated when you have a Prestige Stone.]

-

"Truly defying the heavens!"

Li Wei was overjoyed and immediately activated the hidden experience sharing mode, but then his favorability rating dropped.

原本一共407个100忠诚，刹那间就有199人的忠诚度从100跌落到99.
The drop wasn't significant, but it's to be expected.

However, the fact that there were still 208 die-hard fans surprised Li Wei.

In truth, he had no interest in the little experience points these refugees had painstakingly accumulated; he was helping the poor.

Currently, his total farming experience has reached 213,480 points.

Hunting experience points: 429,572.

The woodcutter has 387,312 experience points.

Scout experience points: 9731.

With his high level and excellent experience, 50 points of his experience in poverty alleviation would be equivalent to 100 points in daily life.

"I guess I'm just unlucky!"

At this point, Li Wei had no other choice.

At that moment, 50 farming experience points were given to each of the 200 refugees who only had one-star farmer cards. This wave totaled 10,000 points, which would require planting a crop for a season on 500 acres of three-star farmland to harvest.

The difficulty and value involved are unimaginable.

In that instant, a one-star farmer who might have taken more than a decade to upgrade could instantly become a two-star farmer without needing any level-up tokens. This also meant that they directly received five free attribute points at that moment.

There could be no faster enhancement.

(End of this chapter)