The Land of Sin, Zelandia

A few days later, the group of Spider Drow who finally arrived late had, as expected, found nothing. They could only stare at the riverbank, which had been licked cleaner than a dog's, and look at each other in dismay.

Li Wei, naturally cautious, wouldn't linger in the same spot after causing such a commotion, waiting for trouble to find him.

Although he had almost annihilated a Gnoll tribe and over twenty Ogres with the strength of a single dragon, and even scared away a Black Dragon more cowardly than he was in his youth, he knew that in this world, which was suspected to be a high-magic plane, his combat power might allow him to bully ordinary creatures lacking supernatural abilities due to a lack of information. However, he was far from being able to openly dominate the region. Perhaps encountering a few prepared professionals who had memorized spells specifically designed to counter him could lead him to a disastrous end.

Most importantly, he was certain that if he had dared to remain in that lair after the battle, some faction would have surely set their sights on him.

It wasn't for any other reason than that, in the battle a few days prior, he had paid a considerable price to lure out the Black Dragon lurking behind the scenes. While the Gnolls and Ogres' indiscriminate attacks had only inflicted some superficial wounds, his point-blank breath attack had left him in a very bad state.

Although in his Red Dragon form he was almost immune to most fire-elemental damage, Li Wei at the time feared that the Red Dragon's Flame Breath wouldn't be powerful enough. He had recklessly mixed in a bit of Void Umbral Energy, and the resulting unknown magical energy reaction had transformed the original flame breath into a world-shattering, high-yield explosion.

The shockwave from the explosion had nearly knocked him unconscious, as if all his internal organs and bones had shifted out of place. He had even lost two teeth, and most of his scales had fallen off, leaving him as bald as a Shar-Pei. It was conservatively estimated that it would take at least half a year for them to grow back, provided he underwent a deep sleep.

Such an action could only be described as madness. That scene had clearly become Black Dragon Kangerweian's nightmare, and it was also the origin of why the Kobolds called him the 'Son of Madness'.

He had only managed to maintain his composure and finish the act of bravado through sheer willpower, fueled by the belief that if he fell, he would be looted. After plunging into the river, he had immediately transformed into his Slime form and fled an unknown distance.

All the Slimes, obeying his command before the battle, had broken up into smaller units. After cleaning up all the spoils of war, they had hidden in the shadows, transforming into various inconspicuous small creatures such as scorpions, geckos, and beetles, and proceeded towards several predetermined nesting sites.

Yes, predetermined nesting sites.

In the past three years, besides spending most of his time eating and sleeping, Li Wei had dedicated the rest of his time to exploring the Underdark.

His vast Slime population, approaching six figures, had acted like his tentacles, constantly extending towards the riverbanks over the years.

Since individual Slimes posed almost no threat and were composed almost entirely of unappetizing mucus, which even carried a foul, sewer-like stench along with mild corrosive and toxic properties, only certain desperate creatures would occasionally catch a few to quench their thirst. The vast majority of Slimes managed to survive and bring back whatever they deemed "valuable" to their silver-thighed benefactor, Li Wei.

As is well known, individual Slimes generally lack any semblance of intelligence, so one could imagine the bizarre nature of the items they brought back.

The vast majority were worthless ordinary stones, weeds, and insect corpses. Once, a foolish Slime excitedly brought back a lump of feces that looked like it had been pixelated, enraging Li Wei to the point where he slapped it back into the river.

But the charm of probability lies in the fact that when the sample size is large enough, good things are bound to appear.

For instance, Li Wei urgently needed various metal ores, especially iron and copper. One lucky Slime even discovered a deposit of mithril ore. However, it was unknown what toxic substance remained on that piece of mithril. After bringing it back, the Slime died of poisoning.

Based on Li Wei's speculation, it was most likely a Green Dragon's lair. He immediately admired this Martyr Slime to the utmost. To successfully steal a piece of mithril from a dragon's hoard, where dragons were notoriously greedy, was enough to be recorded in the history of their species.

Once Li Wei identified something as valuable, Pipim, the intelligence hub of the Slimes, would use their collective consciousness to estimate the Slime's direction of travel and approximate distance. At that point, Li Wei would transform into a Slime and accompany them to the excavation site for on-site inspection.

Over the past few years, he had surveyed hundreds of locations and preliminarily identified several good places as potential future nesting sites.

Li Wei had set several conditions for these potential sites: they had to be sufficiently hidden, far from major powers, outside their patrol routes, preferably near underground rivers, with nearby mineral deposits, semi-enclosed, and, in case of being besieged, must have hidden natural caves as escape routes.

The assembly point ultimately chosen by Li Wei was a natural dome located more than twenty miles beneath Gershon City, a city ruled by the Drow. This dome was much larger than the one he had previously occupied, with a space of over two hundred miles. It was said to be a product of the wild magic that had been unleashed when Karsus used the twelfth-level arcane spell, Karsus God-Seizing Spell, to seize the authority of the first-generation Goddess of Magic, Mystra, causing the Weave to go out of control.

After the second-generation Goddess of Magic recovered and reclaimed the Weave, her control over it was far inferior to what it was before her fall. This resulted in some areas of the Weave remaining unsupervised. These areas were called the Dark Weave by the populace and the Dead Magic Domain by spellcasters. In such regions, conventional spells that relied on the Weave were almost impossible to cast.

This dome was the domain of the Dark Weave, and as such, it had been used by the Drow elves as a sewer.

The first to discover this place was a group of desperate goblins. They found they could live quite comfortably just by scavenging here, and soon they multiplied and grew strong.

But the goblins soon discovered that every few days, dead female drow were thrown into the tunnels. The goblins happily took these corpses, and gradually, even live drow began to escape here. Well, the result was obvious: they almost all became the goblins' ancestral elves.

As for why female drow were always forced to escape here...

It stems from the drow's faith in the Spider Queen Lolth, who loves schemes and struggles. Various plots and persecutions are more likely to please Lolth and gain her favor, making drow infighting renowned throughout the world. Eight or nine out of ten adult novels circulating in the surface human world would use drow as good material.

To borrow a long-standing joke from Coriel, a human adventurer went to a city in the Underdark wanting to experience the taste of drow. He requested that the other party must be of noble status, as this would give him the desire to conquer.

The boss looked at him as if he were a bumpkin and, pointing to a group of girls, introduced: "Nine of these ten girls are former eldest daughters who failed in the power struggles of the major drow families. The last one is a former matriarch who was overthrown by her daughter in a coup shortly after ascending to power. Which one do you want?"

It was clear that these female drow were basically Loser drow from the failed family struggles in Gershon City.

Severely wounded and captured by goblins, no matter how noble their previous status or how astonishing their talent, after endless breeding and childbirth, their dazed minds remembered nothing but the craving for mating, and understood nothing else.

The goblins, having tasted the sweetness of it, even began to sneak into the city occasionally through Gershon City's complex sewers. During the fluorescent moss's wilting period (also considered the default night in the Underdark), they would sneak into the city and specifically pick up drow who were drunk as skunks in front of some taverns, taking them back underground as free breeding tools.

If the goblins could previously turn a blind eye to some Loser drow who failed in their struggles, the fact that they dared to sneak into the city to scavenge was a bit too much.

Especially when a drow from a certain family, who had just ascended to power, was also taken, and when found, had become a sow with only instinct left. This act of desecration finally provoked the anger of Gershon City's upper echelons.

What made the drow very frustrated was that because this underground dome was located in the Dead Magic Domain, and the surroundings were filled with various narrow caves and tunnels, after several small-scale purges by the drow, these damned green-skins would always rise from the ashes after a period of time, and their bad habits were hard to change! Until a drow scholar, after dissecting some goblins, came to a terrifying conclusion: if this situation continued for a few more thousand years, these damned goblins might even assimilate into something not much different from drow.

Thus, the seriousness of the problem was finally placed on the drow's agenda. However, due to the standoff with the Mind Flayer city of Iron Melting Fortress, they could not spare troops for a large-scale encirclement and suppression.

For this reason, the drow had to organize a team specifically responsible for patrolling this dome. But because it was a thankless task, the environment was terrible, and they were repeatedly ambushed (mostly by the drow themselves, eliminating their rivals), this system became a mere formality.

This situation continued until the arrival of a group of escaped Duergar slaves.

They could not stand the drow's oppression, and because the risk of escaping through the city gates was too high, they chose this place as a transit point for their escape.

As a result, they discovered that there were extremely rich mineral deposits in this Dead Magic Domain, and they immediately became unwilling to leave. Thus, they settled here, risking being wiped out by the drow.

Lucky for them, they managed their affairs peacefully here for a while. More and more Duergar escaped here upon hearing the news, and even various other slave races appeared: Halflings, Kobolds, Gnolls, Lizardfolk, Half-Dragons, and even Humans could be seen.

The goblins, whose combat power was crushed by them, naturally dared not speak out despite their anger.

By the time the drow discovered this outcome, they had already banded together and formed a force.

And these slaves named this place ZeRanDiRian.

This is the land of sin.

Zelandia.

At this point, the drow leadership seemed to have only two choices left.

Either pay a great price to annihilate these slaves who were banding together for warmth and were not weak in combat, and then return to the situation of being harassed by goblins every day.

Either make some superficial compromises, tacitly allowing their existence, but Zelandia must pay a huge amount of various rare ores as taxes every month. This, in a way, is equivalent to opening a rich mine without any effort.

And they could add conditions to the agreement, Zelandia must undertake the obligation to exterminate goblins, at least preventing those damned pests from sneaking into the upper city to cause them trouble.

This choice was not difficult for the Drow at all.

The Drow, known for prioritizing profit and shamelessness, readily chose the latter, because the initiative was always in their hands.

As time went by, the tax burden Zelandia had to pay became heavier and heavier. Especially recently, as the friction between Gershon City, ruled by the Drow, and Iron Melting Fortress intensified, this oppression had reached an unbearable critical point.

In a way, they were the slaves of these Drow from beginning to end, just under a different name.

And at this sensitive juncture, Li Wei arrived in this land of sin.

"I wonder if those Slimes have been working according to the plan?" Li Wei muttered to himself.

Thanks to [Poor Monk Loves Silky] for the two thousand reward, thanks to [Green Bud] for the five hundred reward, requesting recommendation tickets for the new week~