Chapter 118: Brothers in Strength and Honor

Chapter 118: The Fugui and Fuqiang Brothers

Once he realized the floating island had ceased its movement, Li Hongshen began organizing the city. He ordered his warriors to regroup and rest, instructed the craftsmen among his subjects to repair the damages, and directed them to record and summarize the findings.

Ultimately, Li Hongshen’s hands trembled as he looked at the report. His mood felt exceptionally heavy; he had initially envisioned a smooth takeoff, but immediately upon separating from the supply city, he was greeted with a splash of cold water. He had received a harsh lesson from the inner reaches of the Endless Wilderness, experiencing firsthand what it meant to be ruthless.

In this high-intensity battle, five warriors had died of exhaustion. Nearly every archer suffered from muscle strains, and many had fingers so badly damaged from pulling bowstrings that they required amputation by the medics.

Inside the city, despite the protection of the Storm Eagles, six houses were destroyed by invading remnants, resulting in over twenty civilian casualties. Furthermore, several fierce birds had rammed headlong into the city walls, causing damage to the outer layers. A few of the toughest ones remained embedded in the walls, still hanging there like grim ornaments.

Finally, there was the critical shortage of ammunition—particularly for the energy cannons—due to the intense combat of the past few days. Li Hongshen was currently severely lacking in spiritual metal resources. After all, such spiritual metals required the territory to nourish mineral veins after the installation of an energy core, gradually converting mundane ore into spiritual veins.

Since Li Hongshen had only recently installed his spiritual energy core, his original mineral veins were not yet capable of producing spiritual iron. Consequently, his previous supply of metals had been acquired through trades within the Elite Society. He was especially in need of spiritual gold for crafting electromagnetic cannon rails. This metal was quite scarce, and it was only because of his ties to the Elite Society that he had been able to obtain so much of it previously. Now, he desperately needed a large quantity to repair his rails.

In truth, while spiritual gold was ideal, spiritual copper could also be used for the rails—though with less efficiency. The crux of the matter was that Li Hongshen produced neither of these minerals and had to purchase them externally. Therefore, he decided to cast aside his previous bold declarations and seek help from his organization to resolve these problems.

He pulled a compass from his desk drawer, activated the floating island’s permissions, and began to move rapidly according to the pointer.

...Five days later...

Li Hongshen stood in the City Lord’s Mansion, expressionless, gazing at a massive island in the distance. The island was covered in cities, and from time to time, warriors mounted on fierce beasts took flight to patrol the skies.

A knock sounded on the door of his office.

"Come in."

"Report, Lords Li Fugui and Li Fuqiang have arrived and are waiting for you in the main hall."

"Show them in directly."

"Yes."

A moment later, the office door opened again, and two large men walked in. They were tall and sturdy with thick brows, large eyes, and square faces; their resemblance was eighty-five percent, making it immediately obvious they were brothers. However, one could distinguish them by their builds: the taller, leaner one was the elder brother, Li Fugui, while the shorter, slightly plumper one was Li Fuqiang.

"Oh, isn't it my brother-in-law! Long time no see, I've missed you dearly. Come over here and let your brother give you a hug! Hahaha, I've missed you to death!"

The moment Li Fugui spoke, he shattered his own upright demeanor, revealing a thick air of sleaze. Li Hongshen simply rolled his eyes and didn't move.

Seeing this, Li Fugui’s eyes darted around. He nudged his younger brother with his elbow, exchanged a look, and continued, "Earlier, I don't know who it was that wouldn't listen to their elders, insisting that the Inner Domain was vast and that they wanted to go out and see it for themselves. As his brother, I couldn't say much, and we tried to persuade him again and again, but guess what this person said?"

Li Fuqiang took over, leaning forward and gesturing with his fingers. "‘Even if I’m beaten to death, die out there, or jump off this place, I will never return to the Elite Society’s outpost.’ Oh, and I remember something else—something about how ‘working is impossible, I’ll never work in a gathering point in this life, I have the ability to develop on my own, why should I go to an outpost and be bossed around?’ Sigh, I just wonder who that person was. It sounded so reasonable and so cool. I just wanted to see how that person is doing now, and if it’s really like what he said."

The two brothers exchanged glances and raised their eyebrows. Their suppressed excitement and the corners of their mouths, which they couldn't stop from curling upward, proved just how happy and thrilled they were.

Li Hongshen watched their performance without reaction, feeling as though he were looking at two weasels that had successfully stolen a chicken. He understood them, though. As childhood playmates and the officially recognized brother-in-law, Li Hongshen had always been the "other kid" their parents constantly compared them to.

Moreover, the two brothers’ status in their family was effectively zero. They had spent years being oppressed by their violent younger sister, acting as scapegoats for everything. It had been a bitter life for them. Now that they had finally caught a chance to enjoy themselves, it was only natural. Look at how happy these two were—laughing like idiots. It was clear they hadn't had it easy.

However, don't blame Li Hongshen for being ruthless; these two were laughing a bit too excessively.

"Well, once I go out, I will truthfully tell Fuzhen about your reactions. And about who played with her battle-maiden doll and tore its clothes. I will also truthfully tell your uncle and aunt how you treated their son-in-law, and I will truthfully tell your uncle exactly how his collection went missing. Furthermore, I will truthfully tell your aunt about how you used her precious cosmetics to doodle, resulting in five missing lipsticks from her 368-piece collection."

"Gulp!"

"We know we were wrong! Please, sir, have a heart and forgive us. Please, definitely don't tell them those things!"

Li Fugui and Li Fuqiang bowed ninety degrees in unison, apologizing loudly and begging him to spare them.

"Mm, it’s fine, don’t worry. I won’t say anything. After all, these pieces of leverage are useless once they are spoken aloud. If they stay in my hands, they might still be of some use, don't you think?"

As he spoke, Li Hongshen pulled a small brown notebook from somewhere, flipping through the entries meticulously.

"Year XXXX, Month XX, Day XX, the brothers Fugui and Fuqiang used Aunt’s dragon-skin handbag to do [redacted]..."

"Year XXXX, Month XX, Day XX, the brothers Fugui and Fuqiang did [redacted] to Uncle’s collection..."

"..."