MC's career as foreign lord

They seemed to be saying something to everyone, a sentence that translated to: Welcome to the Nether!

However, this welcome didn't seem to be accepted by many. After all, whether it was the Nether Fortress or the Crimson Forest, they were essentially a paradise for native creatures, but for explorers, these places were never very friendly.

Zhou Ren directed everyone to fight and retreat. This wasn't a suitable place for prolonged combat. The Nether Fortress only had a pathway about three people wide. If they engaged in battle here, they would inevitably be at a disadvantage.

After all, both Wither Skeletons and Blazes possessed powerful negative status effects. Once afflicted with fire or wither, a character would completely lose their combat ability within minutes.

The legendary powerhouses of this world couldn't negate the negative effects of the MC world. These effects could only be resisted with milk or potions.

To avoid greater losses, Zhou Ren immediately ordered everyone to retreat and then built a massive platform out of cobblestone in the area behind them.

Their advantage was actually the cluster of skeleton archers. These archers possessed terrifying damage no less than that of players, which meant they had more room to maneuver.

As long as they had enough range and distance, they could aggressively advance instead of being stuck on the Nether Fortress, unable to move forward or backward, like they were now.

The Nether Fortress, or Nether Stronghold, was a massive, brick-like structure composed of black stone, naturally spawning Wither Skeletons and Blazes.

These were two creatures that only spawned in Nether Fortresses, and they were also some of the materials Zhou Ren needed.

However, looking at the Wither Skeletons slowly approaching the group, he suddenly abandoned his idea, at least to avoid causing too many casualties, or else this Nether exploration might be in vain.

Then he couldn't order the skeletons to engage in close combat with the Wither Skeletons. After all, Wither Skeletons could respawn infinitely, but once his skeletons died, they were gone for good.

Although these skeletons were all close to advanced professionals, and their physical strength should be much stronger than ordinary people, Zhou Ren, who had never experienced the wither effect, didn't dare to gamble.

Fortunately, the goal this time wasn't Wither Skeleton skulls, so there was no need to overthink. He directly pulled all the skeleton archers into a line at the back and then conducted a mass shooting on the cobblestone platform.

The results were quick this time. Whether it was the Ghast bombers in the sky or the Blazes slowly floating towards them, or those restless Wither Skeletons with black bones,

Under the collective fire of the large group of skeleton archers, they all quickly disappeared. Only Ghast Tears fell into the lava sea, disappearing without a trace, while all the materials dropped by other creatures were scattered on the black Nether bricks in front of them.

A large number of Blaze Rods and Wither Skeleton Bones were scattered there, along with some remaining black stone swords and coal. At least as far as the eye could see, there were no other monsters. Only then did Zhou Ren breathe a sigh of relief and send the troops forward again.

"These are the exclusive materials for alchemy!" Zhou Ren said, picking up a Blaze Rod. Whether it was Blaze Rods or Blaze Powder, they were good things for alchemy and could save them a lot of time.

Only then did everyone have a chance to look at the massive black fortress in front of them. The entire Nether Fortress stood above a sea of lava.

Several very large intersections unfolded before them, displaying unique colors along with four different central bases.

Not all Nether Fortress roads were connected. They had many broken roads, bridges, and walkways, and also many fortress areas that were only half-finished, with basically nothing good inside.

"Let's split up!" Zhou Ren said, looking at the skeletons. "I'll take 10 skeletons, Mosa and Sandru take 10, and the rest of you Legends can split up 15!"

The group moved quickly. The dwarves and monks, along with Gainor, took 15 skeleton soldiers, and the remaining two elven Legends also took fifteen skeleton soldiers.

They separated at this intersection and agreed to meet in a few days. That's right, this wasn't a simple separation, but an exploration that included the Nether Fortress.

For example, Mosa wanted to take his people back to the Soul Sand Valley after exploring the Nether Fortress. As a Lich, he could feel the soul aura coming from there, a place he couldn't refuse.

And the others, such as the elven Legends, these two druids couldn't forget the forest from before. They wanted to return to the eerie Crimson Forest and explore the differences between the green and red forests.

The monk and the dwarves agreed to explore the lava sea. They saw ordinary creatures traveling in the lava sea, which seemed very interesting, and they wanted to communicate with them.

With a dozen skeleton soldiers, they could handle most of the troubles. Zhou Ren wasn't too worried either. He also had things to do. He wanted to take a look at the Bastion Remnant, but before that, he had to connect the entire Nether Fortress.

At least he had to find the Blaze spawner and all the chests in the entire Nether Fortress, right?

Thinking about it, he quickly executed his plan, separated from the others with his skeleton soldiers, and entered a central base formed by stairs on the roof.

Compared to the monsters scattered on top of the Nether brickwork, there weren't many monsters inside the central base. He carefully avoided the piglins. After all, Zombie Piglins weren't a threat to him. As long as he didn't attack first, they wouldn't be able to fight him.

And there were very few Blazes and Wither Skeletons inside, and even ordinary skeletons were rarely seen. There was only a lava well, flickering with the faint light of flames in front of him.

This meant that he hadn't gone the wrong way. It was indeed a special central base room, and in this room, he hadn't even turned a corner when he saw the loot chest piled up at the intersection.

This was also one of the more special chests in the Nether Fortress, often containing some special materials. Of course, not metal, or rather, although there were some metals inside, the quantity wasn't very large. What he wanted were horse armor and saddles.

As things that couldn't be naturally crafted in the entire game, they could only be obtained through various chest loot, so their scarcity was very high.

Zhou Ren walked forward excitedly, but he also didn't forget to deploy soldiers around him, so as not to be disturbed by those short-sighted guys during his unboxing moment.

It had to be said that these trained skeletons could protect his safety very well without any complaints.

They were very quiet, making no sound except for the leaping and burning of their soul fires, as if he were the only one exploring.

"Whoa! My luck is pretty good. I got two diamonds, a diamond horse armor, and a saddle!" Zhou Ren said, satisfied as he took out the items, only putting the gold sword back.

After all, gold wasn't a scarce item for him, and in this modified Nether, there were gold chests and gold ore everywhere.

If he went to a bastion remnant, he could even find chunks of gold there. These things weren't rare enough to make him envious.

Continuing forward, when he saw another chest halfway, he suddenly stopped. He wondered why he felt something was off. When he passed the Nether fortress entrance, he forgot something important.

He quickly led the skeletons back and found an upward staircase by the lava-filled well, the place where they had come down.

Then, looking back along the staircase, on both sides and behind it, were rows of fully matured Nether warts, a special Nether plant that only grows in Nether fortresses.

It was rare and scarce, and like blaze rods, it was an essential ingredient for brewing potions. Although some potions didn't require Nether warts, its importance couldn't be denied.

However, this plant was somewhat similar to ordinary plants in the Overworld. It could be planted, but not in soil, but in something many people wouldn't expect: soul sand.

That's right, soul sand could grow Nether warts, and this planting wasn't affected by the environment. Even in the Overworld, this plant could grow quickly without any light.

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Because its shape resembled spicy sticks, some people would joke about it being a spicy stick crop, but not many people wanted to taste this plant that originated from soul sand.

Soul sand itself was a taboo of the soul. Unless it was a time of crisis, who would want to ignite a bit of soul fire?

Nether wart could be used to make the base for all potions except for potions of Weakness, which was the awkward potion. This potion was the prerequisite for most potions.

After collecting the Nether warts, he led the skeletons back to their previous location. He didn't know if it was good luck or bad luck, but after opening three chests in a row, he didn't get a saddle, only some horse armor.

As for diamonds and gold, they were never important, so there was no need to mention them.

With a saddle and horse armor, he could think about where to find a horse to tame. If that didn't work, he could make a carrot on a stick to tame a pig.

Zhou Ren's mind was filled with all sorts of whimsical ideas as he continued to walk through the Nether fortress with his soldiers. Soon, he had explored all the rooms and corridors in the area, using exhaustive search to circle around the rooms, without worrying about missing any room.

And now, the place he was going was the Nether fortress's watchtower intersection. On the other side, he could see some very white traces, which seemed to be where Mo Sa and the skeletons had walked.

Not too surprised, Zhou Ren continued forward. He had already collected dozens of blaze rods, but you could never have too many blaze rods.

And on the watchtower in front of him, he could see a unique spawner, something completely different from the skeleton and zombie spawners. Inside, there were strange rod-like creatures with flames swirling around them.

When these rod-like creatures flew, they made a hard, metallic clanging sound, and when they took off, they made a pipa-like sound mixed with air. Of course, the flames they projected still had a strong burning effect.

This was also one of the special attributes of Nether creatures. All Nether creatures had strong fire resistance, and some could even spit fire directly.

These flames had the ability to burn people to death. If you didn't carry fire resistance potions, you should be careful wherever you went.

Being on fire meant you would lose half of your health, which was no joke. The fiercely burning flames would cover your body in an instant, which was also one of the reasons why the Nether was difficult to explore.

The suddenly appearing blaze was directly killed by the skeletons Zhou Ren sent out. He leisurely set up tables and chairs, seemingly enjoying a moment of peace during this time.

Some food was placed on the table. Everyone carried food, or else there was no way to live in this strange fortress for too long.

After collecting dozens more blaze rods, he felt it was about enough, so he directly took out his pickaxe and mined the spawner.

Next, his goal was another mysterious place, the bastion remnant.

He originally saw a basalt delta, a jagged, cave-like biome.

But halfway there, he suddenly remembered that the only place where bastion remnants wouldn't appear was the basalt delta. This place concealed a large number of Nether ores. If he wanted to mine gold or other minerals in the future, he could prepare here.

Then he suddenly stopped. This trip to the Nether itself had a mining task. Although he didn't need gold, cobalt and ardite should also be produced in these special areas, right?

Moreover, there were no piglins here, only some zombie pigmen, not too many in number, but enough to use. By the way, there were also a lot of basalt, blackstone, and a small amount of magma blocks here!

Blackstone was a Nether stone that had the same function as Overworld cobblestone, so Zhou Ren adapted quickly. He took out his pickaxe and joined the skeletons in the mining business.

His speed wasn't slow, and he quickly cleared all the ores in front of him. Although he wasn't short of gold, it was always better to mine it when he came across it.

Zhou Ren also accidentally mined a special ore. This was ancient debris, which was very scarce in the original version. It was a kind of original debris different from ancient metal, and its function was that it could be directly smelted into Netherite ingots.

The reserves of this debris were even rarer than diamonds in the Overworld, and besides ore, it would only be generated in bastion remnants and hoglin stables.

Moreover, it would only generate ordinary Netherite scraps, and if Netherite scraps wanted to be synthesized into Netherite ingots, they needed to be synthesized from 4 gold ingots and 4 scraps, which was a very cumbersome process.