Chapter 9

He followed the mountain path deeper into the forest.

The further he went, the more Su Li felt something was wrong.

The indigenous people in such deep, old mountain forests were likely either savages or...

About half an hour passed.

Su Li climbed over a hill that had been obstructing his view.

Looking out, he saw a structure built of earth and stone in the distance.

"That is... a stronghold?"

Su Li already had a faint guess in his heart.

He began to hide his figure, quietly approaching through the nearby grass.

When he was less than a thousand meters away.

He narrowed his eyes and observed the stronghold carefully.

This stronghold covered an area of several mu.

It was built on the mountainside.

There were cliffs on both sides, and only one mountain path led to the stronghold.

At the entrance of the stronghold, there was a thick wooden gate.

At this moment, the stronghold gate was completely shut, and there were two guard posts on the left and right, each with a sentry holding a bow, patrolling the surroundings.

He couldn't see what the situation was like inside.

However...

At this moment, a notification popped up before Su Li's eyes.

"You have discovered a wild bandit stronghold; if you break it, you will receive huge rewards."

Su Li was stunned; this was actually a bandit stronghold.

"Interesting!"

Then, instead of being nervous, he was full of joy.

Upon learning that this was a bandit stronghold.

Su Li didn't first think that the stronghold was too close to his territory, White Cloud Village, and that the bandits inside might attack White Cloud Village.

Instead, he thought about how he should improve his strength next!

His blade technique skill had already reached the Advanced level.

The beasts in the nearby mountain forest were no longer enough to satisfy his upgrade requirements.

The next upgrade naturally became a problem.

The appearance of this stronghold was exactly the answer to that problem.

If he could attack this stronghold.

Killing the powerful bandits inside should be able to increase his Advanced Blade Technique proficiency.

Even if it couldn't, the rewards for taking down a stronghold would also greatly improve the overall strength of White Cloud Village!

It's just that...

For now, his strength was still lacking; he was no match for the entire stronghold, let alone the higher-tier enemies inside.

He still had to wait for an opportunity.

After lurking near the stronghold for a full hour or two,

and having generally figured out the terrain of the entire stronghold, Su Li quietly left and returned to his territory.

After one day.

White Cloud Village already had 10 farmers.

Under the effect of [Hundredfold Growth], their professional skills had also been greatly improved.

Consequently, their speed in collecting resources was far beyond that of ordinary farmers.

But even so.

Without iron blocks, he still couldn't upgrade the territory.

"Right, why am I so stupid? Why do I have to go find iron ore myself!"

Su Li pondered for a while, then suddenly slapped his forehead, remembering something.

"Doesn't this Three Kingdoms survival game have a trading system?"

"If I need materials, can't I just go find someone else to trade with?"

Perhaps his luck was bad, and there was no iron ore near his territory, making it inconvenient to collect iron blocks.

But with so many players in the world, it couldn't be that every territory lacked iron ore nearby, right?

If that were the case, no one would need to upgrade their territory; they could just stick to their level 1 villages and wait to be eliminated.

Once he thought of this, Su Li immediately opened the trading system.

At this moment, quite a few people were already seeking trades on it.

"Stone for wood, damn it, my territory is on a barren slope; I have to run so far just to log!"

"5 units of wood for 1 unit of food, wuwu, the recruited farmers consume so much food; one person eats 2 units of food every day!"

"I spent two days grinding out a farmer with hunting skills, but I can't feed ten people at all; seeking a kind person to trade."

"Exactly, farmers with hunting skills are indeed too rare; I'm almost unable to feed them either, so hungry!"

"Seeking food trade +1"

"Seeking food trade +10086!"

All kinds of trade information filled the trading area.

However, the most demanded item among them was food units.

As for why this situation occurred.

It was entirely because the farmland planted in the early stages had no yield, and players wanting to obtain food could only rely on farmers with hunting skills to go out and hunt.

But farmers with hunting skills were those with high base Might attributes, which were relatively rare.

In two days, one could at most grind out one or two.

Actually, grinding out two was fine; by having other farmers do less work, they could reduce food consumption and barely get by.

But if only one farmer with hunting skills was ground out, that was very unlucky.

Even if they worked eight hours a day, the food units obtained wouldn't be enough for everyone's consumption.

Su Li was actually one of those unlucky ones.

In two days, he had only ground out one farmer with hunting skills.

However, he had the ability to enter the mountains alone to grind monsters.

Even if he encountered a pack of gray wolves, he could protect himself.

After going into the mountains twice yesterday and today, he had instead harvested a large number of food units.

This was something ordinary players simply couldn't compare to.

Once they entered the mountains, without hunting skills, they might struggle even to catch a wild rabbit.

So Su Li thought about it, and in order to obtain iron blocks as quickly as possible, he directly used food units as trading chips to exchange for iron blocks.

The new book sets sail; seeking flowers and ratings!!! ===== CHAPTER 22 =====