Chapter 137: Encirclement

Chapter 137: Encirclement

Early the next morning, Li Hongshen walked out of the Central Lord University admissions office, his face pale and his legs trembling slightly, cold sweat still beading on his forehead.

He managed a strained smile, turned to bid farewell to the silver-haired, mature woman following him, and then stepped onto the altar, vanishing amidst a ripple of spatial energy.

The silver-haired woman held her chest with one hand, a slender cigarette between her fingers, and licked her lips with a pink tongue. "Sigh, these young boys are so much fun, and so adorable. If it weren't for Old Wang picking him first, I would have wanted to take him under my wing myself. I wonder if he's prepared; it would be such a shame if he can't walk out of the psychological shadow."

***

After a moment of vertigo, Li Hongshen returned to Hong City from the altar. After calming everyone down, he asked them to leave his office; he wanted to be alone.

Li Hongshen paced back and forth in his office, lost in deep thought. From time to time, he looked up at the stars that seemed close enough to grasp, and occasionally checked his construction panel and his personal sign-in system.

About half a day later, he opened his office door and told everyone to proceed as planned. He did not return to the Lord's Mansion, but instead walked straight to the main wall of Hong City.

Li Hongshen leaned his hands on the battlements, staring blankly at the distant sky. Even when a ferocious bird crashed into the protective shield, he did not react. Behind him, Li Li and Ke watched him with concern.

"Patriarch..."
"City Lord..."

Hearing their voices, Li Hongshen's eyes regained a flicker of life. He did not turn back, but asked in a hoarse voice, "Suppose that for my sake, I let you stain your hands with blood and pave the road ahead with corpses. Would you be willing? Is it worth it?"

Li Li and Ke exchanged a look and knelt on one knee behind Li Hongshen. "We are willing to die for our Lord."

The response from behind made Li Hongshen’s gaze slowly turn firm, and he finally made his decision. "Get up. I'm fine. Just continue to carry out the plan."

***

"Yes."

Seeing Li Li and Ke stand up, yet remain by his side rather than leaving, the corners of Li Hongshen's mouth curled up slightly, and his previously gloomy mood dissipated quite a bit.

He understood that he had already embarked on the path of a Lord, and he had already mentally prepared for what he would have to endure. He had just been suppressing those thoughts or trying to avoid such situations. But after his visit to the admissions office yesterday and being put through the ringer by that silver-haired woman, he had to face these things, and he had to face his own heart.

What he was about to do was fundamentally for his own benefit—not because of some assessment or a so-called mission. The core reason was that he wanted to climb higher, and if he wanted to obtain the qualifications, he had to be prepared to shoulder everything.

"Heh, I really am a selfish person."

After this self-deprecation, the hesitation in Li Hongshen’s eyes vanished. His once murky eyes became bright again, and his gloomy demeanor faded away.

"What does it matter if I shoulder everything? What does it matter if I tread upon a path of bones? Killing one is a crime; slaughtering ten thousand makes you a king; killing millions makes you an emperor; and only after slaughtering a hundred realms can one dare to call themselves a Sovereign. I finally understand this saying now."

***

The descent of Hong City went very smoothly. They encountered no flocks of ferocious birds, and the occasional stray beast was shot down early on. However, this good fortune was ruined when they reached the middle airspace by a few short-sighted individuals.

Several eye-catching floating islands gradually formed an encirclement around Li Hongshen, and the flags on the cities atop those islands were very familiar to him.

"Hmph. Ready the energy cannons. Wait for my command, but tell them to aim at the city walls and avoid the people in front of the battlements."

Li Hongshen then turned his protective shield to maximum power and took out a megaphone to broadcast his voice.

"Huilu, Lin Shun, Wang Zhongneng, Lise—what do you think you're doing? Are you going to ignore the internal regulations of the Elite Association and attack a fellow member?"

"We are simply conducting internal trade and are about to form a small gathering point. It is you who are obstructing us. Please leave our nearby airspace and do not delay our business."

Li Hongshen did not respond to this; instead, he accelerated his territory's descent, but soon the surrounding floating islands began to descend as well.

"I warn you, don't play with fire. Jealousy can be fatal. Do you understand?"

The other side did not reply this time, but from their subsequent actions, it was clear they were determined to target Li Hongshen. Li Hongshen knew these people; he had even dealt with them personally. During previous commercial wars, these people had all tried to obstruct him, only to be hit back by Li Hongshen.

***

As it turned out, these people couldn't even read the situation. They insisted on opposing Li Hongshen, and after a few rounds, they had simply become victims of their own jealousy.

Facing this situation, Li Hongshen began piloting his floating island to ram into Huilu's city. As the leader of this group, Huilu was particularly envious of the benefits Li Hongshen had obtained, as the two of them were quite similar.

One was born into an ordinary family, the other was an orphan of a military family. Their base resources were roughly the same; both were favored for their abilities and talents, and both had been invested in early on. Both had been doing quite well in the Endless Wilderness previously.

But comparisons are the root of misery, especially horizontal comparisons. Even more cruel than that is losing after a head-to-head confrontation, and the ultimate humiliation is losing several times in a row, only to have your girlfriend gossip behind your back about how you don't measure up to the other person.

Such malicious rumors had caused Huilu to lose face completely. The girlfriend he had managed to woo, who came from a prominent family, had left him, eventually evolving into his current state: bringing people to harass Li Hongshen.

However, he hadn't completely lost his mind. He was using this encirclement to annoy Li Hongshen and delay his time. If Li Hongshen wasn't mistaken, Huilu must have sent people to challenge those few third-tier indigenous tribes.

And it was certainly the kind of challenge that didn't aim for victory, but just to fight for a while, meet the regulations for a formal engagement, and then run away.

This was a loophole in the Lord University rules. The admissions offices of the three major Lord Universities all explicitly stated that one could not attack the same indigenous tribe in succession, with at least a hundred years between attempts. Generally, this rule was meant to prevent student lords from hiring others to cripple a tribe so they could deliver the final blow to gain admission, but it was very effective for Huilu to use it against Li Hongshen. At the very least, if he succeeded, Li Hongshen would have no choice but to choose another tribe.

However, although Huilu’s plan was meticulous and well-thought-out, and it did manage to annoy Li Hongshen, he had brought a "pig teammate" along.

Just as Li Hongshen rammed into Huilu's city, a bomb ejected from Lin Shun's city and shot toward Hong City, exploding against its protective shield and causing ripples to erupt.

Li Hongshen and Huilu both saw this, but their reactions were vastly different.

Huilu's eyes widened, his pupils constricted, and he roared, "No~~~~~~~~~~~~!"

When Li Hongshen saw the bomb explode, however, he cracked a wide grin and waved his arm.

"Fire!"