Blue Mountains

To be fair, Bilbo was right.

Quite a lot had happened over the past few months. Li Wei alone had personally killed over a hundred Orcs.

He had also successfully gone from a complete rookie who knew nothing to a seasoned veteran capable of fighting calmly in all kinds of situations. Though he had never fought in any large-scale battles, raids and ambushes came up often enough.

After countless battles, Li Wei's bearing had undergone an unconscious transformation.

"You look like you've been somewhere far away. Did anything interesting happen, Li Wei?"

"A lot did happen." Li Wei sighed emotionally.

Seeing Li Wei like this, Bilbo knew the coming days would not be boring. This chef was quite the storyteller.

"If I'd known you were coming, I would've bought some fresh food. We'll make do with something else for lunch today, and I'll head to the market afterward..."

Bilbo rummaged through the shelves where he kept his food, already planning the meals for the next few days.

Unfortunately, Li Wei only stayed for one day.

Time together was always fleeting.

Early the next morning, Li Wei mounted his horse and prepared to set off.

"You really won't stay a while longer, Li Wei?"

Bilbo found it rather regrettable.

"Haha, don't worry, Bilbo. We'll meet again someday."

Bilbo put his hands on his hips and nodded.

As he watched Li Wei's retreating figure, his thoughts drifted to the horizon as well, recalling the stories Li Wei had told yesterday.

Ogre Forest, Orcs, Rivendell, Elves...

All these novel things filled the Hobbit with longing. He even wanted to... No, forget it. Adventure? Impossible. Such an exhausting and uncertain life could never compare to the comfort of Bag End.

Shaking his head, Bilbo returned indoors.

Yet he still could not help looking out the window once more, toward the distance.

A few days later.

In the woods near the Shu'en River, Li Wei rode at full speed in a suit of Elven Steel armor. As he dodged the trees ahead, he could not help cursing.

"What the hell? Why are there Orcs here too?!"

"Roar!"

And Wargs.

At that moment, at least a dozen Wargs were chasing Li Wei, with Orcs riding five of them.

I should never have taken this shortcut.

Li Wei was not afraid of such a small force at all.

But his horse was.

Neigh—

Caught off guard, Li Wei's horse was struck by an arrow from an archer behind him. It immediately reared up and paused for a moment.

The instant it paused, a Warg pounced and sank its teeth viciously into the horse's rear.

Those beasts especially loved biting asses.

"Get lost!"

Li Wei thrust his sword backward, piercing straight through the Warg's head. Its corpse fell behind them. Turning back, Li Wei took out some wheat and fed a mouthful to his horse, restoring its health to full.

If it had been an ordinary horse, it would have been shot or bitten to death several times over by now.

The Orcs behind him shrieked and fired another arrow. It grazed past Li Wei's head, making his breath catch.

"Tch."

Seeing that he could not keep taking hits without fighting back, Li Wei had no choice but to switch to his bow and fire an arrow behind him.

Whoosh—

As expected, it missed.

"Ha ha—!"

The pursuing Orcs burst into mocking laughter.

Honestly, being worse at mounted archery than any random Orc archer he might meet by the roadside made Li Wei see red.

"Laugh all you want! If I weren't on a horse, I'd get down there and slaughter every last one of you!"

Li Wei gritted his teeth, but his hands never stopped drawing the bow.

If accuracy was lacking, quantity would make up for it.

Shoot enough arrows, and one or two were bound to hit.

At any rate, he had plenty of arrows.

Ever seen an archer carrying several hundred arrows on him?

As Wargs fell one after another with arrows in them, the Orcs behind them realized something was wrong.

Were this man's arrows unlimited?

Come to think of it, they hadn't even seen where he was getting those arrows from.

"Pah, trash! If you've got the guts, come down and fight!"

One Orc shouted.

"You said it!" Ducking around a large tree, Li Wei leaped off his horse with lightning speed. With several quick motions, he placed down block after block of cobblestone, blocking the path behind him. At the same time, he ran back on his own initiative, intercepting the Wargs trying to leap over.

Seeing Li Wei deliver himself to them, the Wargs no longer cared about the horse blocked off by the cobblestone. With a roar, they pounced on Li Wei. Yet with just a slash to the left and another to the right, Li Wei cut down two Wargs.

Those two Wargs had only bitten off a little of his health, and it had fully recovered in the blink of an eye.

After those two Wargs, a pack of stragglers behind them rushed forward one after another, squeezing in. Some bit at Li Wei's waist, some tore at his thighs, and some even leaped up to gnaw at his head. Within seconds, Li Wei was covered in Wargs. Yet the occasional -1 floating up proved they could not inflict much damage. No matter how hard they chewed, they could not keep up with Li Wei's health regeneration.

The greatest damage they inflicted was probably psychological—it left Li Wei covered in foul-smelling saliva.

What followed was simple.

He only needed to kill—and then keep killing.

"Aha, you're dead!"

Seeing Li Wei covered in Wargs, one Orc was certain he could not survive. It charged over at once, raising its butcher's cleaver to strike.

But in the next instant, a sword pierced through a Warg's body and stabbed straight into its throat.

"Fuck, they're still clinging on this tight even after dying."

Li Wei tore the Wargs hanging from his body and gave chase amid the belated terror of the remaining Orcs.

Blue Mountains Dwarf Faction Reputation +15

Lindon Region Reputation +10

The reputation increase notifications signaled the complete annihilation of this miscellaneous squad.

Li Wei opened the faction interface. As he looked through it, he suddenly noticed that his Lindon region reputation had somehow reached 160. But he didn't seem to have done anything around here.

"Huh?"

Li Wei suddenly realized something.

Lindon and Rivendell shared reputation.

Though, thinking about it, that was normal. The two had originally split off from the same family, so it made sense for them to count as one faction.

He had established decent relations in Lindon as well.

As for the Dwarves...

For now, at least, the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains were already friendly toward him. He no longer needed to worry about being interrogated when he went over there.

He broke the cobblestone, mounted his horse, and set off again.

Li Wei continued westward and soon arrived at the riverbank.

Once he crossed the Shu'en River and traveled a little farther, he would reach the Blue Mountains.

But making a horse swim across was clearly unrealistic.

Li Wei took out a Crafting Table and quickly made a rectangular boat on the spot. He pushed the horse aboard first, then climbed in himself, picked a direction, and began rowing.

The little boat was not large, but it fit one man and one horse perfectly.

Under Li Wei's control, the two oars kept paddling and turning, driving the boat through the reflections of clouds on the river and leaving ripples in its wake.

The boat was no slower than riding a horse. Before long, he had crossed the fairly wide river.

Standing on solid ground once more and gazing into the distance, Li Wei knew he was not far from his destination.

Li Wei took out the paper map he had gotten from Bilbo again.

He had no idea who had drawn this map or when, but it did not mark the exact location of Thorin's Halls.

But that did not matter. Once Li Wei went there himself and finished exploring the map, he could just mark it on the system map. He would never have to worry about not being able to find it again.

Although the map had no marked location, Li Wei still knew the general direction.

It should be—to the southwest.

Most of the time spent traveling was always dull and tedious.

It was not until dusk the next day, when he saw the distant mountain peaks on the horizon and a glimmer of light at their feet, then stepped onto a solid, neatly paved road, that Li Wei finally let out a sigh of relief.

He had arrived.

Thanks to Eating Should Be Right for the two monthly tickets, Book Friend 20190330212656471 for one monthly ticket, Night Sonata · Yubine for one monthly ticket, Song of the Blood Sea for two monthly tickets, Calamity Burial for two monthly tickets, Book Friend 20190126113812416 for two monthly tickets, b White-Browed Eagle for one monthly ticket, Blue Northern Face for two monthly tickets, and Book Friend 20170729144715331 for two monthly tickets. Thank you for the support!