The evening breeze was soft, carrying the warmth of the coming season.
The territory blazed with lights and voices — as if the endless dark had been made gentle by the glow.
South of the main building, just outside the Magic Ore Vein, a curl of gray mist spread slowly through the night. A figure stepped out of it.
A woman in black. Tall. Her face looked no older than twenty, but it carried a weathered severity — eyes that had seen too much, expression that rarely softened.
She carried a small pack on her back, like soone returning from a long journey. Even her stern gaze held a flicker of hesitation at the threshold of ho.
"Halt!"
Several sharp whistle blasts, then a barked command.
"Identify yourself! This is the Fla Baron's domain. State your na and submit to inspection by a caster before you may pass!"
Within seconds, several massive searchlights snapped on across a radius of hundreds of ters — two locking onto the woman in black, the rest sweeping the surrounding area.
Farther back, an electric truck started up. A squad of fully ard soldiers piled in and surged forward. From another direction, hoofbeats thundered — five knights ca riding hard.
The lead rider was clad in heavy armor, tiger-head great blade in hand. Zhao Xuanxuan, radiating killing intent.
She was halfway through her charge when she made a hand signal. Within seconds, the tense standoff dissolved — she had recognized the newcor.
The soldiers and hidden sentries withdrew in order. Zhao Xuanxuan didn't slow her horse — she rode all the way to within ten ters of Li Yue before reining in.
The warhorse reared with a long neigh. Zhao Xuanxuan controlled it with her legs alone, blade raised in one hand, like a war goddess. Her gaze didn't soften for a mont — it cut like a blade, fixed on Li Yue. A month of consecutive battles had made her killing intent almost tangible.
Li Yue looked back calmly. After a long mont, she let out a quiet laugh. "Xuanxuan — look at you. Five months and you've grown this much. Everything's solid except your mount. That's a bit weak."
Zhao Xuanxuan vaulted off her horse and pulled off her helt, breaking into a wide grin. "Xiao Yue, welco back. I knew you'd co."
"Don't call Xiao Yue. I'm over eighty."
"I don't care about that. We're not ordinary people — why would I count those years? I do what I want."
Li Yue didn't argue. The Viper didn't concern herself with such things.
"It's almost nine. Why are you all still up?"
"We normally turn in early. Tonight's special — so I brought people out for extra watch. Aunt Liang ntioned a few days ago that there's a skilled enemy scout watching us from the shadows. Adai's been sensing it too. We can't afford to be careless." Zhao Xuanxuan's tone was serious.
"Where's Li Wei?" Li Yue asked, glancing south. She'd just arrived and already felt a faint sense of being watched — vague, hard to pin down. Whoever it was had Perception above hers.
At least 5. Possibly 6.
"Li Wei's at Riverside Fortress — Scar Glenn's old place. He cleared four hundred mu of farmland there himself. He's grinding his Farr Destiny Grid."
"He's still grinding Destiny Grid? Didn't the Widow Yang tell him about the watcher?"
"She did. But Li Wei said it doesn't matter — let them watch. We just need to stay careful and pull back our patrol range. They can't flip the table on us."
"Ha. Li Wei's gotten bold." Li Yue smiled slightly, and the two walked side by side toward the main building.
"Xuanxuan — you've gotten taller."
"Eating well, sleeping well, not worrying about anything — second growth spurt." Zhao Xuanxuan was completely unbothered. Her confidence had returned — not the reckless gambler's confidence of before, but sothing more like a tiger who had found her elent. Heavy cavalry charges, blade rising and falling, her Three-Star Warhorse hitting seventy kiloters per hour with a twenty-five-kilogram tiger-head blade in her hand. Nothing more satisfying.
In just over forty days, her Cavalry Destiny Grid had surged to 18.
Fast horse, heavy blade, limitless force — no weaknesses as long as she stayed mounted.
Level 4 Ability Users went down like nothing.
Li Yue smiled and said nothing. She wasn't going to deflate the girl — but standing before her was a Second-Order Night Knight. It was a good thing she had co. Left to her own devices, with Zhao Xuanxuan this reckless, she'd eventually run into a real expert and pay for it.
They passed through the gate. Inside the walls it was lively — children still running around, people chatting in small groups, the tavern packed. No one was working. This was off-hours. Except for those on rotation, no one pushed themselves after hours.
That was because the rules and systems were in place now. Who managed which departnt, who did what, what the monthly wage was — all of it was clear and settled.
Those who wanted to be soldiers, to fight outside, got a base wage plus double combat pay — effectively three workers' wages for one person's labor, plus attribute cards and Clearance Token bonuses at year-end.
Those who didn't want to fight, who preferred a quiet civilian life, had that option too.
The territory's resources were plentiful. The market regularly had starred food items and slightly imperfect magical potions. The tavern still limited alcohol to one cup per person per day, but the price was fair. Work hard, eat free at the communal kitchen, or pay a bit more at the smaller dining hall. Or just cook at ho.
Singles lived simply. Families had started saving. The food wasn't extravagant, but there was a future to work toward.
In just a few months, Li Yue already found it unfamiliar.
Freen greeted her along the way. Nelson, Linus, and the others ca forward with surprised delight — in their experience, people who disappeared from the territory rarely ca back. And yet here was the young Lord's sister, returned. It gave them more to think about.
Inside the main building, things quieted. Passing the second floor, they could hear a baby crying — the place had practically beco a maternity ward.
The third floor was blazing with light. Seven or eight won in matching uniforms were busy — a pregnant woman was in labor.
Isabel's mother Lisa had beco the authority on this. She had even established an independent departnt outside the dical Departnt. Liang Yuzhi had given up her own workspace for it.
"The small dining hall that used to be on the fourth floor moved to Section C on the first floor. The fourth floor is now the dormitory for Aunt Liang, , Isabel, Lisa, Ellen, Jenny, and the others. n are not allowed."
"Fifth floor is Aunt Liang's potion storage and laboratory. The rooftop is Adai and his crew's territory."
"Xiao Yue — you don't know this yet, but Adai has over a hundred followers now. Mutant crows, mutant magpies, mutant owls, mutant vultures. They cover a radius of three to four hundred kiloters — from Riverside Fortress to Base 349, even the ruins of that small county town to the north."
"Adai's beco more and more essential. Over thirty of them are now tad as Hunting Pets. When we go out on patrol, we release a few of our own Hunting Pets and basically don't need to worry about ambushes."
Zhao Xuanxuan talked as they walked, giving Li Yue the full tour.
They reached the fifth floor. Liang Yuzhi was busy — too busy to even greet Li Yue properly. Well, if a rolled eye counted as a greeting.
"This past month, we've hunted so Ability Users and so mutant creatures. No Universal Gold Cards — so we've been collecting magical materials instead. We've stockpiled a lot. Aunt Liang has been running experints almost every day, preparing magical potions. Little Isabel is on the verge of a breakdown — ha, let her experience what nightmare-level studying feels like."
Li Yue and Zhao Xuanxuan waited outside while Liang Yuzhi worked with Isabel and two other girls aged fourteen or fifteen, occasionally unleashing a roar of frustration at them like a mother tyrannosaurus.
The three girls cowered like quails, walking on eggshells.
When the batch of potions was finally complete, Liang Yuzhi walked out — and the atmosphere imdiately lightened, as if the eye of a storm had passed.
Even Zhao Xuanxuan instinctively tensed.
"Where's your enchanted greatsword?"
Liang Yuzhi opened with no pleasantries.
Li Yue rolled her eyes. "Sold it."
"You reckless woman! You might as well sell yourself while you're at it — you'd probably fetch a good price as a headliner!"
Liang Yuzhi cursed, but her hand moved quickly — she plucked a white hair from Li Yue's head and tossed her a Resource Card. "Li Wei left this for you. One Enchanted Cavalry Shield, one Enchanted Two-Handed Long Blade, one Enchanted Lance. What's the situation out there?"
"Sa as always. Nothing's changed."
Li Yue said it flatly, pocketed the Resource Card, then casually tossed ten Pet Cards to Zhao Xuanxuan.
"Ten Two-Star Warhorses. Find so soldiers with potential and distribute them. Cavalry only has deterrence at scale."
"Oh."
Zhao Xuanxuan blinked, then slipped away quickly. These two had gotten along fine when NG was active — why were they so prickly with each other now?
Whatever. Ten Two-Star Warhorses. That was incredible. Xiao Yue was the best.
"I want to find that scout and kill them," Li Yue said, unhurried.
"No. You're not a match for them." Liang Yuzhi refused outright.
"What? If I'm not a match, are you?"
"There are at least ten Five-Star Barbarian Cross-Border infiltrators. Do you want to die? Then go ahead and die early."
"How can there be that many? Are you sure?"
"Li Wei saw them himself. And he killed two of them — heh. He even helped soone destroy a Level 4 Barbarian Wilderness Camp."
"Level 4?" Li Yue shot to her feet. She and Liang Yuzhi understood better than Li Wei what that ant. The Weir Duke was in serious trouble.
No — wait. If it had already been destroyed, then it wasn't a crisis. If it had reached Level 5, a Barbarian advance force could have marched straight through.
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