My Misfortune Crushed Instances-Chapter 298: Heading North

By the next day, the scouts who went out to investigate returned, and Li Rui finally understood why he had been so unlucky.

The Giant Island is divided into four states. The Divine Wood Forest is located at the southern end of Zhangye State in the south. From this forest, heading west, there are explorers from the Western Kingdom, and to the east, there are explorers from the Polar Alliance. There is no sign of his own Dragon Country’s team.

In other words, he was trapped at the southernmost end of the Giant Island, surrounded by layers of enemy blockade.

"Hmm...."

Li Rui glanced at the various packed spoils, a total of three large boxes. If he could rendezvous with the headquarters, he could exchange them for a huge amount of contribution points, and even possibly obtain a legendary item.

The problem was, how to get the stuff out.

The spoils couldn’t be stored in the inventory. Once collected, they would become bound, and most of them were useless anyway, better to hand them over, using the merit to exchange for more needed items.

The current difficulty was that in the Divine Wood Forest, carrying Yuan Erliang and making seven in-and-outs was not a problem, but there were masters in the other Extraordinary camps; if he was careless, he might end up delivering it all.

But staying here wasn’t an option either.

The resources on the entire Giant Island were limited, if he didn’t grab them, they would be snatched by other forces. Time was pressing.

There were also rumors of hidden rewards, treasures that required gold coins to open.

Li Rui had now collected some from other tribes, totaling sixteen coins, but it was still far from enough.

After thinking about it, he decided to first check out the situation scouted by the Demon Race spies.

"Sir, please look."

Yuan Ju pointed at the map and said, "The spies from the Rabbit Race and Hawk Race have seen it, the people you want to avoid are distributed at these circled points."

Li Rui compared the Yangli Race map with his own and found not much difference, so he signaled the other party to continue.

"If you want to avoid those foreign spies, I suggest going through this Cuihong Mountain."

Yuan Ju strategized, "From the north side of Shandong, there’s a tribe that was once on good terms with my race. If you take this letter I wrote to them, they will surely receive you well."

Li Rui said, "That’s great then!"

Yuan Ju smiled and asked, "I don’t know when will sir return."

"Return?"

Li Rui blinked.

"What?! Are you not coming back?!" Yuan Ju was shocked, "That can’t be right."

Li Rui frowned, "After all, I’m an outsider, I can’t stay here indefinitely."

Yuan Ju hastily said, "Why not? You are here, and all tribes respect you, you can choose whatever wealth and glory you desire, why leave?"

He was eager enough to offer benefits.

Li Rui said, "Not my wish, no need to persuade, from now on, you’ll rule this place, treat all tribes well, work together, and don’t forget the times of hardship from before."

Yuan Ju sighed deeply, "I won’t forget. But I worry once you leave, the tribes won’t obey, and the Divine Wood Forest will fall back into the past...."

"No need to worry, I have my ways, go call all the leaders here."

... 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

In the grand hall, Li Rui sat on the throne, which used to belong to Yangmo Cauldron.

"Now the forest situation is stable, there are no more disputes among the tribes, everything looks promising, as long as you all unite and develop, the Divine Wood Forest will surely flourish."

He said this, and aside from a few recently subdued tribes that might still hold grudges, the vast majority surely agreed.

Li Rui said with a frown, "However, there is one thing that still worries me."

Standing beside him, Yuan Ju didn’t speak, while the leaders below were eager to show concern.

"May I ask what worries the Grand General?"

"I worry, if anyone repeats what you and I did today, what should be done then."

Li Rui said expressionlessly, "If anyone causes trouble, I’ll have to suppress it, but everyone here is a founding member of the alliance. When the time comes, I hesitate to harm you, torn between choices."

The demons understood the implication, and the elder of the Flying Leopard Race, also a new leader, said, "I am willing to relocate my tribe’s elite to the central area under the Grand General’s command."

Li Rui smirked inside, knowing the Flying Leopard Race had tasted benefits. At first, that elder Fei Xiong had tried to kill him, if he knew in the netherworld, finding the Flying Leopard Race’s territory is now much larger than it was, he’d regret it terribly.

With someone taking the lead, other leaders also understood, whether out of admiration or fear, they all handed over control of their tribe’s elite.

Li Rui was very satisfied, as expected, having just yesterday wiped out the boss born from the Divine Wood, these Demon Races wouldn’t dare to act rashly.

He deployed these Demon Races to the central area, took another day to get ready, and then summoned the leaders again, announcing he’d be leaving for a while, leaving the forest affairs to Yuan Ju.

He believed that with this Monkey Demon’s talents, as long as the forest affairs were managed properly, he would soon gain respect, and truly unite.

Before leaving, he explained, "Yangli Race and Fox Race were once the biggest interest groups, not to be trusted, you should gradually distance, but it cannot be done overnight. Select and employ able individuals from other tribes, perhaps I will come back after a while."

"Thank you, sir."

Yuan Ju reluctantly, seemingly wishing to escort him for ten miles.

Li Rui waved, "No need, you go back and oversee the situation, I’ll just take away these two able subordinates of yours."

He picked up Yuan Erliang, then jumped onto the shoulder of the Giant Warrior.

The former was the translator he needed, the latter willingly wanted to follow on a distant journey. After all, his tribe was gone, only one Giant Ape left, maybe understood something and wanted to see the world.

Li Rui didn’t ask much, waved farewell to Yuan Ju and the other tribe leaders who came to see him off, and one human and two demons set off northward.

Due to the unexpected addition of the Giant Warrior, the issue of the spoils was resolved. He carried a huge basket, woven from the Divine Wood Forest’s Vajra Bamboo, more resilient than steel bars, able to hold several boxes, and Li Rui and Yuan Erliang sat inside, making the journey relaxed.

As for when he leaves, when the Polar Alliance and Western Kingdom people come and open the map, they’d find all treasure marks turned gray, by then it would be too late.

Without rewards, they shouldn’t bother the forest’s Demon Races with any warfare.

...

At this time, Dong Sanchuan’s camp had significantly grown, because the main force linked up with him and found the place suitable for stationing, so they sent dozens to assist.

"Conductor Kong, Cheng Mingyue just arrived yesterday, she got a map, seems to be a guiding tool."

Dong Sanchuan barged into the makeshift tent.

Kong Ji’s position in the Secret Realm battlefield was deputy conductor, stationed temporarily here, while another camp was located some twenty or thirty miles away, where Cheng Wen and other high-ranking officials were.

"Great, just solved the language issue yesterday, got the guiding tool today, well done."

Dong Sanchuan said, "The goodwill of the nearby five tribes has risen to respect, and tomorrow it should reach admiration."

Kong Ji nodded, "Good, bring the map here, let’s analyze the current situation."

He called over other command-level people as well.

"Position, first determine the big position, the island has four main areas, we are at the southern end of the eastern area."

"I know, that demon tribe leader said yesterday, this is called East Wangze State, we are at the southern end, adjacent to the southern Zhangye State, northward is the Netherworld Ghost Swamp."

"Conductor Kong, we need to hurry up with the exploration, should we head south or north?"

Kong Ji said, "Let’s study a bit more."

He stepped out of the tent, glanced at the calm camp, feeling somewhat anxious inside.

"Damn, we found Guan Gui, Cheng Mingyue, the others are all veterans, shouldn’t worry, Li Rui, that kid, where did he go, hope he hasn’t run into trouble?"