Chapter 286

Amidst the suffocating gloom and oppression, the sun over Sunlight City, already almost completely obscured by heavy clouds, finally set.

After checking the special equipment prepared for tonight, Ji Ming took the church's carriage to the Mercenary Arena.

He had never been here before; he only caught a distant glimpse of this pallid building steeped in bloody, terrifying legends when visiting Dean An.

But since this is the base of the Mountain Folk Mercenary Alliance—or rather, the Mountain Folk Gale Mercenary Corps—there naturally exists an entire complex of buildings.

This towering building, decorated in the style of a kitchen waste bin, is merely the outer sign; one must pass through it to reach the mercenaries' true core area.

As a cultivated person who often visits Sheng Guang Jiao Tang to admire excellent cultural products, Ji Ming felt his mind begin to suffer ongoing elemental damage the moment he stepped inside.

Compared to these mercenaries' taste and interior design, even a village outhouse could boast good taste, and a prehistoric tribe could praise its natural state—after all, they would never display bones of various races as corridor decorations or light candles in people's skulls.

Only under the guidance of several welcomers in ill‑fitting formal wear, whose beards outgrew their hair and who struggled not to swear, did he enter the Covenant Hall and finally see something worthwhile.

"Wow."

Although they are Deep Forest folk, this band of rough mercenaries, sent to act as thieves, basically looks down on locals and even the Radiant Light people.

But who made Ji Ming a life‑saving doctor, or a divine chosen one from another great church?

Thus they still gave him considerable respect, for example enthusiastically introducing the ceiling mural when they saw his interest in it.

"Hey bro… uh, I mean, sir, this looks good, right? Everyone thinks it's great! You've finally gotten to see it!"

"You see? This is the majestic pose of our Grand King when he once slaughtered elves, and the Alliance Leader—former Alliance Leader—had master artists paint every stroke when designing this building."

"Grandpa?"

"Oh, that's the heaven‑sent stud who could fight 107 succubi in a row but died on the belly of the 108th."

Ji Ming originally wanted to take a screenshot and photo to commemorate this tall, tough older brother of a time traveler.

But the mercenaries revered him too much, covering the ceiling with all kinds of beautiful flowers and expensive silk, obscuring most of the mural except the Lionheart King's actual figure.

When showing guests around, they each felt they'd done a splendid job, adding frills to the former boss's artistic legacy—everyone was now a cultured, clanging civilized person!

But to Ji Ming's eyes, this was——

"What kind of Qianlong behavior is this—slapping a stamp on anything you like just to show off your existence?!"

Too bad, in the Covenant Hall aside from this mural there are only exaggerated, stiff‑smiling mercenaries, guests constantly glancing around ready to bolt, and countless eye‑hurting decorations.

With plenty of time before the ceremony, Ji Ming had nothing to do, so he spread the wings of his imagination and tried to view the full mural through the gaps in the coverings.

But just as he was looking, a sentence suddenly popped into his view.

【"Bored, huh? Actually, speaking of this Lionheart King, he's kind of a fellow countryman of yours."】

As a desperate‑measure meddler‑turned‑interstellar‑trader, the Lionheart King was actually snatched by a small boss from a tech planet in another parallel universe.

In life he had just taken office as a junior village official, a capable and diligent young man who led the villagers to earn plenty via a new sales channel of the era's new media, his future bright.

Unfortunately, when he went into the city to fetch goods, preparing to personally test the new variety, he hitched a ride on his uncle's freight truck and, by accident, was killed by a dog.

"Wait a minute, how come your story is already this hard to get going right at the start? Even after reaching King rank, you can still be killed by a dog?"

【You don't know, that driver was especially afraid of dogs, and also didn't notice a little dog sleeping in the sun on the roof of his parked truck. As a result, after the truck was on the road, the puppy slowly woke up from the wind, accidentally lost its footing and fell from the front of the vehicle, frightening the driver into jerking the steering wheel, and then……】

……

How is the Darwin Award for the second year phrased?

……

【Because both the dog and the driver were miraculously unharmed, only he was impaled to death by a roadside monument that protruded in; that year it was treated as an urgent case.】

In short, Little Lion comes from a different world, a country called Yanhuang, and possibly due to the influence of higher dimensions, this planet has a history similar to Earth's, making it a top-down parallel world.

So although he is a relative by marriage of Ji Ming, as a being of the same dimension as Yangyue World, he, who cannot bring his own energy, definitely has no right to enter through a back door and choose his own starting point.

After reincarnating into Yangyue World, his luck also plummeted; he only rolled a rather miserable identity, descending upon a very poor barony in a remote region of the Holy Tree Kingdom.

Although the big environment was bad enough, upon opening his eyes he gained a series of debuffs: 【Parents deceased】, 【Fiancée broke off engagement】, 【Debt】, 【Young sister】, 【Frail body】, 【Tyrannical neighbor】.

The only piece of good news, roughly speaking, is that his father's job was inherited by him, so he wouldn't be so pitiful as to not even have a bowl of rice to eat.

And the reason he could inherit it is because his father-in-law, while alive, was a messenger for the baron; this job is essentially a noble servant, so naturally it can be passed down from father to son.

Although this job sounds strange, in reality it's not respectable either; its specific content is just running errands, fetching or delivering various items for the master.

There is some profit, but it all has to be saved from the round-trip expenses, and along the way all sorts of unpredictable things can happen—for example, his father was killed on the way when someone removed his kidney.

With such a miserable start, Yangyue originally thought this savior would curse the heavens for being unfair; after all, what era is this, that even web novels don't use such a clichéd opening.

As a result, this kid walked around inside and outside his house, talked to many passersby, and finally ended up slapping his thigh in delight, shouting loudly under the somewhat fearful gazes of his own family.

"I get it!"

Then he started shouting about things like his high ancestor being reborn, the Hongwu Emperor possessing him, the rebel king Chu Wang returning to the world, claiming he not only had the luck of a web novel male protagonist, but even the destiny of a light novel male protagonist, happily declaring himself the reincarnated emperor, as if he had graduated from life.

From then on, he would go to the tavern whenever he had nothing to do, and he generously spent all the travel expenses he had painstakingly saved, quickly making acquaintances with a band of greenwood outlaws, impoverished nobles, and even local tyrants.

Yangyue didn't know what he was up to, but since the savior was his own choice, even if he got even crazier, what could be done? Just make do; he had no choice but to occasionally issue some side quests to help him supplement the household income.

Gradually, Little Lion became the most renowned man in the area; no matter whose household had some dispute, as long as they asked him to act as this intermediary, he could definitely turn major issues into minor ones and minor ones into nothing, quite effective.

Unfortunately, the good times didn't last; the Yangyue Star in the second year was practically like entering the apocalypse—the northern part of the kingdom went months without a single drop of rain, so dry that the crops in the fields couldn't even sprout, and even magic could hardly save them.

In the south, it kept raining nonstop; although the rainfall varied in intensity, this dampness never ceased, and the crops in the fields all rotted in the mud, even the relatively well-preserved armor of the minor nobles showed some rust.

Besides that, there were sandstorms, hurricanes, earthquakes, and plagues that could strike at any moment… Almost every conceivable natural disaster that could occur came through once.

Moreover, after the Holy Tree's commoners, relying on the grace of the mage elders, barely managed to survive to the second year, they found that the situation in the second year was actually worse than the previous year.

In such a situation, not to mention ordinary commoners, even Little Lion, whose life in another world was gradually getting on track as an overpowered protagonist, suffered a heavy blow.

Relying on the assistance of several wealthy brothers, he could barely get by, and he himself wore a bitter face, gazing out the window at a vast expanse of marshes, sighing long and short.

"Ah, facing natural disasters, buddy not only has no solution but can't even get a meal—what world have I come to? Do you have such a world where you are? Really, it's a total mess."

Even Yangyue felt that this kid's luck was a bit too bad, and decided to accumulate strength to pry some extra cheats from the world's rules.

Who would have thought that the very next day, they discovered that the barbarian primitive beastmen of the northern civilized world, already rotted into a porridge-like state, launched a fierce attack on the kingdom's southern pass.

After all, although disasters are disgusting, they also have a good side—for instance, they disgust everyone equally.

If the Holy Tree people are suffering to the point of not having food to eat, then this group that can only lie in the wasteland, baring their teeth at their own kind, are already researching how to remove the fishy smell from their own children.

As soon as they heard that the good brothers up north could still eat wild vegetables, their mouths watered nonstop; no matter what, they had to come over and grab a handful.

Now it's like a leaking roof meeting nonstop rain; the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse all came to the baron's territory to join the festivities, and even Yang Yue, that cold-hearted cheat, couldn't help but soften, wondering whether to give him a chance to start over.

Who would have thought Little Lion slapped his thigh again, and under the terrified gazes of the three childhood sweethearts beside the pillow, he let out a loud cry.

I get it!

He immediately contacted the twelve most reliable and strongest iron brothers and sisterly comrades, responding to the Count's summons, and as the baron's troops set out south to fight the barbarians.

As for why he goes to war in place of the baron, it's because the baron's ancestors mingled with the elders of the nine surnames of the elf clan, and the family has genuine elf blood, so it's like trading a worthless life for a good gun.

As for why there are twelve, it's because they are rare loyal and brave souls who would follow Little Lion no matter what.

Well, he simply couldn't find any more who were not only capable but also willing to lay down their lives for righteousness—those damn idiots.

Thus he couldn't form the Eighteen Riders of Yan Yun, nor the Thirteen Guardians, so he could only borrow a name from a Western friend whose hometown shape resembled his own—the Round Table Knights.

Baron: "What the heck is this weird name? Everyone practically wants to call themselves gods, and you guys actually call yourselves a dining table?"

However, the baron was happy inside, and as a noble he still satisfied Little Lion's chuunibyou fantasy, granting twelve knights at once.

As for Little Lion himself...

Many years later, when facing the execution squad of Count Deep Forest, Baron Kumash will recall that distant afternoon when he watched the future Lionheart King proclaim that he would become a great noble.

It's just that prosperous ages are all the same glorious moments, while chaotic ages each have their own extremely disgusting aspects.

Thus when Little Lion arrived at the frontier, he found that the nobles and knights here were indeed despicable worms, and facing the feeble foreign tribes they were even more feeble.

And the new cheat that Yang Yue sent to Little Lion happened to be a holy sword sent by the fairy spirits, which not only comes with various combat skills, but can also grant several war buffs to his subordinates.

Thus, those who still retained a semblance of humanity quickly rallied a force that could barely be called not bandits, began frantically farming battle results along the border, and soon earned the duke's favor.

At this point, the millennia-old kingdom's noble system had become bloated to the point of being nominal only, under the premise that barons are worse than dogs and viscounts are everywhere, the duke easily secured for Little Lion a count title that nominally covered only three small villages.

Of course, if calculated by actual control and taxed land area, Count Deep Forest's territory is likely far larger than a normal count's; these are his war spoils from the conflict, and those long-dead nobles could not possibly seek redress for this.

And Little Lion also felt he had strength, status, the twelve Round Table Knights, and the curry stick given by the fairy sister; such legendary deeds placed in a later-generation gacha mobile game would probably struggle to keep his chicken.

Simply put, he went all-in as a tough guy, pre-creating the personal image and brand of silver armor and blue robe, so that he could later pass off as a 'my wife'-level beautiful girl character, rather than some black-fat-round big mom used to farm rewards.

And up to this point, this is also the opening of many Lionheart King stories, namely 'the count of the borderlands'.

... After all, many of the ruthless deeds the ancestral king did before rising to prominence are really not fit to be told to outsiders; for example, everyone wants to elaborate, but I really dare not elaborate, so please feel free to imagine the three childhood sweethearts.

As for the story afterwards, it's simple: he fully drew on the advanced experience of rebel predecessors like Liu San Chong Ba, diligently studied the reasons for victory of the Qin, Han, Sui, and Tang ancestral hometowns, and forged 'Deep Forest' an unparalleled war monster, as well as 'Northern Border' an extremely powerful noble conglomerate.

Unfortunately...

This kid, when it came to the crucial matter of lifespan and heir succession, not only failed to learn from the excellent Han, but also didn't learn even a bit from the Tang; instead he made a sharp turn and ended up following the old Qin.

In the prime of his life, he abandoned his offspring who were still more distant than anyone's... and departed from the mortal world, leaving behind the legend of him single-handedly facing 108 female bodhisattvas, after which he was hung on the wall, his appearance and voice still vivid.

If it weren't for the elf aristocrats already mostly wiped out, the twelve knights would indeed have been loyally devoted to protecting the young lord; although they couldn't compare to the Duke of Zhou, at least they taught this kid to bear a semblance of a ruler when looked at, otherwise the Deep Forest household would surely have fallen apart.

So this story tells us that the human limit is truly 107...

Just then, a booming drum interrupted Ji Ming's wandering thoughts; it turned out the time had already come to 8 PM, and the inauguration ceremony of the new alliance leader was about to begin.

He observed the surrounding guests without changing his expression, and found that the number of people who had come was still more than he had imagined.

After all, no matter how fierce the mercenaries, they can't make money run into their own waist pouches by themselves; they still need some local assistance.

If one is clever enough, perhaps they could even get a share of the Dragon's Skill and become a member of the new masters of Sunshine City.

But even so...

Ji Ming slightly furrowed his brow, thinking that Suo La, who utterly lacks combat power but could be called a black mark in Ke Li Si Ting's history, actually also came here—this is perhaps a bit too much like a mouse stealing a dagger and running around the streets looking for cats.