Chapter 86: The Plain of a Million Li

The citizens under Li Fuzhen were also human, and their tribe was called Radiance. They numbered about six thousand, with barely a thousand warriors.

Her tribe had developed along lines very much like Li Hongshen’s: agriculture was valued, pastures were maintained within the territory, martial training was promoted among all the people, and a unified system of instruction was enforced.

As a result, the people on both sides had some common ground, and their merger went fairly smoothly. Especially after Li Hongshen provided a batch of clothing, the only way to tell the two sides apart was by build: the stout, tall people belonged to the Hong tribe, while the slightly shorter ones were from Radiance.

Li Hongshen did not remain long in Li Fuzhen’s embrace. Early the next morning, he began organizing the departure.

Li Fuzhen did not contend with Li Hongshen for any standing. Instead, she placed her people in his hands with complete trust. In daily life, she spent most of her time standing beside Li Hongshen’s deputy, watching him handle affairs with focused attention, and from time to time offering him a pastry or feeding him fruit.

For reasons he himself could not explain, Li Hongshen felt a fleeting discomfort at first, and then a surge of renewed vigor rose in his heart. While enjoying Li Fuzhen’s attentive care, he found it even easier to devote himself to the affairs of the group.

A warrior force of nearly three thousand set out from Li Hongshen’s camp and marched for about two days before reaching the banks of a broad river.

This river was called the Boundary River, but it looked more like an ocean, a description that was perhaps a little exaggerated. In truth, it divided the outer reaches of the Endless Wasteland from the central zone, and any crossing had to be made by ferry.

Li Hongshen climbed a tall tree and looked toward the faintly visible opposite bank, watching the river surge ceaselessly below and feeling the breeze drifting over the water.

Beneath him lay the spread of his territory, though this time it was not the fortress of Phoenix Rest Valley, but a harbor built upon the beach.

Six vessels were moored there. The largest was the Trialer, and the other five were the new ferries Li Hongshen had built.

These ferries were forged with refined iron for their frame and hardwood planks for their hull, and by the sweat of countless warriors and the painstaking labor of the craftsmen. The seams were sealed with rubber; each plank was engraved with mystic runes to increase durability and water resistance, and to gather energy from the surrounding world, granting the entire vessel added defense.

Beyond that, their most remarkable feature was their electric propulsion system, driven in concert by three motors. Fully loaded, each vessel could carry five hundred passengers, reach a top speed of eighteen knots, and cruise at fifteen knots. In a world where technology was locked away, this was nothing short of astonishing.

These ferries could be said to have many advantages: the hulls were strong and durable, labor costs were reduced, and their speed was extremely fast. Their only flaw was that they consumed a rather alarming amount of blood crystals.

At full load and full speed, they required three first-tier blood crystals per hour. They were entirely unsuited to long voyages and could only serve ferry duty.

Originally, Li Hongshen and the others could have crossed on the vessels of the Elite Society. But after repeated investigations, Li Hongshen discovered that the Elite Society’s ships were in fact ancient relics approaching ten thousand years in age—old sailing ships that had been patched and repaired countless times.

And to operate such a sailing ship, one needed a crew of at least thirty sailors. The procedures were extraordinarily complex, and training a batch of crew members to proficiency would take at least several years, unless they waited for other merchant seniors to arrive and asked them to carry them across.

In the end, Li Hongshen submitted a proposal and successfully sold his own electric vessels to the Elite Society, securing their purchase and replacing the antiquated sailing ships. In one stroke, this allowed Li Hongshen to save both the research costs and material costs of the electric ferries, and he even earned the production fees for two additional vessels.

This time, Li Hongshen had no intention of running the ferries at full capacity, nor did he plan to have everyone board. He withdrew the bulk of the warriors back into the territory, leaving behind about three hundred warriors, some spellcasters, and several dozen imperial crocodiles.

He boarded the ferry, inserted the blood crystals, stowed the territory away, and, surrounded by a pack of imperial crocodiles, set off in grand procession toward the opposite bank at moderate speed.

After an hour and a half of sailing, Li Hongshen successfully docked at the harbor specially prepared by the Elite Society on the far shore, and stepped onto the land of the Endless Wasteland’s central zone.

During the voyage, Li Hongshen never experienced the unease that Ross had spoken of, nor the supposed ferocity of aquatic beasts. Most of the time, he simply held Li Fuzhen in his arms and pointed at the Boundary River, saying things like, “Ah, the Boundary River, full of water.”

This made Li Hongshen sigh inwardly. Compared with the discomfort he had felt when he first descended into the outskirts of the Endless Wasteland, then the smooth footing he gained after finding a group in the outer regions, and now the complete facilities of the central zone, he deeply understood how every beginning is hard, and how those who plant trees may shade those who come after.

And now he had become one of those who planted trees. He believed that these five ferries would better help those who came after with trade and migration.

Once these ferries reached full speed, they could better evade attacks from aquatic beasts. Ordinary beasts would also struggle to keep up, after all; not everyone could cross so brazenly and arrogantly, with a whole pack of crocodiles at his command, as he could.

The central zone of the Endless Wasteland was unlike the outer regions. It was also known as the Million-Mile Plain, or the Million-Mile Grassland.

It was not like the outer belt, with its many mountains, forests, and natural barriers to defend.

Here, instead, there were rolling plains and low hills, the ground covered by grass reaching up to the calves.

Upon entering the central zone, one could no longer artificially manipulate the ecological balance as in the outer regions, nor divide the surrounding land into multiple hunting grounds to pen in beast herds and hunt them down, nor preemptively purge packs of ferocious beasts to reduce the danger of beast tides as before.

Here, one had to face sudden developments at any time: a swarm of insects might strike, a herd of beasts might pass by, or one might encounter another tribe. And when a beast tide came, one could rely only on the lord’s own territory and citizens. There were no native natural fortresses to hold.

After reaching the central zone, all lords would switch to a nomadic mode and advance toward the inner domain. They would not remain in one place for long, because that would attract frequent attacks from beast herds.

Yet the lord still had to expand his own territory so as to merge with the energy laws of the Endless Wasteland, and the altars within the territory also needed to absorb energy from the Endless Wasteland in order to awaken.

Ordinary citizens likewise needed to live in the Endless Wasteland as much as possible, passively absorbing spiritual energy. This could improve their physical condition and increase the chances of becoming warriors.

Thus the balance between travel and encampment had to be mastered by the lord himself. The many operations involved, and the effects they brought, were in truth a test of the lord, his territory, his citizens, and his stockpiled resources.

Moreover, the cities established by Phoenix City First High School in the central zone numbered only fifty, and they were scattered across several directions. On average, one had to advance one hundred thousand miles before encountering one, which further increased the survival difficulty for the school’s lords.

Li Hongshen and the others set out from the harbor, following a river toward the outskirts of the central zone. After nearly a month of travel, they finally encountered the first reception city.

They entered the city to rest and register, then received the rewards granted by the school and a map of the route into the inner domain.

After that, they expanded their territory near this reception city and prepared to encamp for a time. They wanted to become familiar first with the rules of the Million-Mile Plain before heading to the camp prepared for them by their predecessors.