1052: Expanding territory

“Hiss, Village Chief, your whole getup…” Li Man squeezed out from the crowd, his eyes shining as he looked at Li Changkong's full set of armor and equipment, then a hint of disbelief appeared.

This set of equipment wasn't cheap!

“I’ve broken through to become a Formal Knight.” Li Changkong didn't explain the origin of this equipment, but instead said something even more shocking.

In fact, the thing the Village Chief was most wary of was him misappropriating public funds for his own use.

Armor, shield, iron sword, and warhorse.

Having these items would inevitably make the villagers think he had misappropriated public funds.

But if everyone knew that his strength had reached the level of the strongest person in Li Village's history, then this set of equipment would be completely fine in the villagers' eyes!

The first Formal Knight in Li Village, of course, should have everything equipped and ready!

They had to let everyone around know that Li Village wasn't easy to mess with either!

And that was exactly the case.

When the villagers learned that Li Changkong had broken through to Formal Knight, they were all filled with excitement, and they had no mind to discuss the origin of the equipment.

You say that equipment is expensive? Could the Village Chief have misappropriated public funds?

Does the Village Chief, a Formal Knight, not deserve it?!

In an instant, Li Changkong's prestige in Li Village rose another notch!

In the history of Li Village, which spanned over sixty years, only one Formal Knight had appeared.

And that Formal Knight allowed Li Village to stand tall and live like people for several years!

Of course, this was limited to standing tall among those who were also at the bottom.

But even so, this was a big event worth celebrating for the entire Li Village!

“Village Chief, I knew you could do it!”

“This must be celebrated!” Li Man was even happier than Li Changkong himself after hearing the news.

“Yes, celebrate, we must celebrate!” The crowd behind also cheered.

The most important issue facing Li Village right now is survival.

And survival requires at least two conditions.

First, a stable source of food, and second, security!

Li Changkong's strength represents the security of the entire Li Village, so how could people not be excited?

“We can celebrate later. Everyone get some rest tonight. I have some things to arrange for everyone to do tomorrow.” Li Changkong was still quite calm.

His gaze swept over the villagers in front of him.

Seeing that most of the familiar faces were still alive, his mood relaxed a little.

However, he also knew that now was far from the time they could celebrate.

After Li Changkong spoke like this, the villagers didn't dwell on it. They returned to their respective homes, discussing easily in groups of two or three.

“Changkong, no one is missing, they are all here.”

“However, two were injured and might need more than half a month to recover.”

Not long after, Li Bo came with the news to report to Li Changkong.

Hearing this, Li Changkong finally let out a sigh of relief.

From his dreamlike escape from prison to rushing all the way back, his nerves had been taut, fearing that something had happened to Li Village.

Now he could finally relax, and a wave of fatigue gradually washed over him.

This was also thanks to this System... otherwise, he would probably be dead beyond dead.

“But Changkong, I didn't see you return this afternoon, and I was worried you had encountered some danger, so I sent two more people to Busen City. As of now, those two people still haven't returned…”

Speaking of this, Li Bo looked at Li Changkong: “Is someone in Busen City targeting us?”

Clearly, in Li Bo's opinion, only Li Changkong could answer this question.

Hearing this question, Li Changkong then thought of Su Liang, and his fists clenched slightly.

After a long while, he finally recounted the matter between himself and Su Liang to Li Bo.

After hearing all this, Li Bo, who had always seemed magnanimous, showed a hint of anger on his face: “Su Liang, that White Eyes!”

“It was still my own stubbornness, I didn't consider it thoroughly.” Li Changkong slowly shook his head, feeling that he had misjudged people.

Li Bo sighed: “How could there ever be a moment where everything is considered thoroughly in this kind of matter?”

“People's hearts are the most unfathomable things. Wasn't Su Liang a pretty good Child in our Village at first? At that time, even if I knew about this plan, I would have acquiesced and supported you, Changkong.”

“This is not your fault.”

“We can only say that people with our kind of appearance are not yet worthy of having the ability to cross social strata.”

“In the future, the focus should still be on nurturing the Children. Now that you are a Formal Knight, you can at least provide more security and resources for the Children's future growth.”

“I will go to the Town in the next couple of days to check on the situation with the Renault Family. If there is anything Something is wrong, our entire Village must be prepared to flee.”

Li Bo's thinking was more mature and more stable.

But the price of this was that the overall development of Li Village would be extremely slow.

And once they decided to move the entire Village to avoid the Renault Family, leaving the vicinity of Busen City, Li Village would be embarking on a journey of wandering.

“No, people like us with this appearance can also be powerful beings.”

“To break through the current predicament, we must take a gamble!” Li Changkong's tone was very firm.

As he said these words, the figure of A Man named Ye Tian, who was in the same prison as him before, unconsciously appeared in his mind!

Only at this moment did he finally realize.

Before, in prison, that A Man must have used some terrifying Magic to affect the minds of the guards, thereby allowing them to release both of them!

Afterward, that A Man disappeared into thin air, which further indicated that he was definitely a powerful Magician!

He also had the same appearance as himself, which shows that people like them can strive for a higher peak!

“Changkong, calm down, we don't have the ability to contend with the Renault Family right now!” Li Bo said anxiously when he heard Li Changkong's words.

He was worried that this Village Chief, after breaking through in strength, would think he was very strong and cause trouble recklessly.

The previous Village Chief who broke through to Formal Knight died because of this.

“I know, the Renault Family is one of the three major Gaopeng Family in Busen City, we definitely can't fight against them now…”

After saying this, Li Bo's expression eased quite a bit.

“Go rest, there are still things everyone needs to work on tomorrow.” Li Changkong said to Li Bo.

After the conversation, the System panel in front of him slowly appeared.

...

The next day.

As soon as the Heaven started to light up, the spiritual lamp on the lampstand extinguished.

Li Changkong, who had slept leaning against a tree all night, opened his eyes and woke up.

He turned his head to look at the warhorse beside the tree, got up, grabbed a handful of grass from the original wild horse stable, and fed it to the warhorse.

Stroking the warhorse's head, Li Changkong finally realized that everything he had experienced yesterday was not a dream!

“Ye Tian… Ye Tian brand Lord System.”

Muttering to himself, Li Changkong opened the System panel.

After telling the villagers to rest last night, he spent a few hours familiarizing himself with most of the System.

On the entire panel, there was only one piece of information that drew Li Changkong's attention.

Territory: 0.2 (More territory, more System rewards can be obtained)

This piece of information was one of the entries in his attribute introduction.

“More territory, more rewards can be obtained.” Chewing on the easily understandable words in the parentheses that followed, Li Changkong clenched his fist: “Rewards, will they be like yesterday, increasing strength, or rewarding good equipment like warhorses?”

With the previous rewards, Li Changkong was clearly very much looking forward to the rewards mentioned in this explanation!

Of course, the prerequisite for obtaining rewards was expanding the land!

...

In a lush dense forest.

Ye Tian, who had bound a Host last night, was currently in a bush, conducting a field investigation of the current World.

The original strength of this World was actually not very high.

But because of the arrival of that Black Shadow Clone, the level of the entire World was raised by several levels!

In his perception, the power of Heaven and Earth was still quite stable, and all the rules were also stable.

After all, the points he used to resist the repulsive force were being output steadily.

From the current stage of observation and deduction, that Black Shadow Clone was still being sealed.

And these monsters in The Black Night were all evolved and born from its scattered power.

“This is a big piece of fat meat. No. 1 System should have originally planned to develop to a certain extent before coming back to eat this piece of meat, right?”

“It should be like that, otherwise it wouldn't have just sealed this guy.” Ye Tian muttered to himself in thought.

He was currently considering under what circumstances he could reasonably devour that Black Shadow Clone without being detected by the Black Shadow main force later.

There was actually a method, and he was already implementing it.

That was to choose a Host in this World and cultivate it to a certain level.

Then let the Host represent justice and eliminate the Dark Demon!

The general idea was this form, and the subsequent operational process needed further planning.

Withdrawing his attention from looking into the distance across space, Ye Tian turned his gaze to the side.

This was an unremarkable piece of land, and below the land, a not-so-small iron ore deposit was buried.

...

Li Village.

“Come, help me get that round log.”

“Put some effort into it, it's almost time for lunch!”

Outside Li Village, more than thirty young and strong men from the Village, as well as some middle-aged and elderly people in their fifties and sixties, were sweating profusely, busy with the work at hand.

If an outsider passed by, they would surely be surprised to find that Li Village was using round wooden fences to expand the land area of their Village!

“Brother Man, won't something happen if we do this?” While busy, a Partner working with Li Man beside him asked with some concern.

“Something happen? What could happen? The Village Chief is just letting us expand the territory behind the Village. This wasteland was originally unwanted, so what's wrong with us including this place within the scope of our Village? Besides, the Village Chief is now a Formal Knight. Doesn't a Formal Knight deserve to have more land?”

Li Man expressed disdain for his Partner's concern.

“I mean, before we expand the land, shouldn't we go to Busen City to apply?” The Partner was still hesitant.

Before joining Li Village, he was an exiled slave.

Even now, he still felt worried and timid about most things.

“Hahaha, don't be naive, kid. Busen City has never acknowledged the existence of our Li Village. Us applying to the Town to expand our territory? I'm afraid we'd spend a lot of money and still get no results, or even cause more trouble.”

“We have to defend these territories ourselves, understand?” Li Man had always been a person from Li Village, and he clearly understood the character of the surrounding City long ago.

“But expanding the land like this is ultimately taking a risk, right? What is the Village Chief's purpose in doing this? This has already expanded the area of the Village by more than half!”