Nether Trek

Nether Wart was an essential brewing ingredient, while Blazes provided consumable materials and ingredients for Brewing Stands.

Clang!

His sword struck a Blaze, yet it rang out with the sound of metal colliding.

No one knew exactly what these things were made of, but they were definitely tough.

Boom boom boom—

Several Blazes launched fireballs and besieged Li Wei, but they were completely ineffective. He raised his shield, and they could not even break through his defenses.

Achievement Unlocked: Dance with Fire

Blaze Rod acquired.

Creak.

A few Wither Skeletons circled around from behind, attempting a sneak attack. Yet they could not even touch Li Wei. With precise control of distance, he wiped out all of them in just three strikes.

Sweeping Blade was terrifying indeed.

When Li Wei swung his sword, not only was the target directly struck severely wounded, but the added force of impact also shattered the nearby skeletons.

Its performance was far stronger than in the game.

After farming materials at the Blaze Spawner for a while, with nothing else worth looting, Li Wei chose to temporarily leave the fortress and dug up some Soul Sand and Glowstone.

On the way back, he also killed a Magma Cube and obtained some round Magma Cream. This stuff was good—it was especially effective against burns.

He entered the portal.

"Phew—"

Li Wei breathed a sigh of relief upon returning to Middle-earth.

Honestly, the Nether was far too hot, and the sulfur smell hanging in the air was truly unpleasant. The air back home was still much fresher.

Beneath the farm, Li Wei opened up another fairly large space to grow Nether Wart.

Achievement Unlocked: Local Brewery

Now that he had Blaze Rods, the first thing to do was naturally craft a Brewing Stand and make some potions.

By now, Li Wei had grouped the Enchanting Table, Brewing Stand, and Nether Portal together. He had even built a hall around them, giving the whole area some simple decoration.

It was looking more and more like a wizard's residence.

There was no need to explain it this time. The facts were right there.

"Maybe I should just build a Wizard Tower."

With that thought, Li Wei took out the freshly brewed Potion of Swiftness, enhanced its effect with Glowstone, then added gunpowder to turn it into a splash potion.

Then he headed straight for the horse ranch.

Smash!

The potion bottle shattered. Li Wei quickly pulled out two Golden Carrots and fed them to the two fastest horses.

Before long, a foal that ran like the wind was born.

He repeated the process twice more.

Finally.

Speed: 20m/s.

A top-tier horse had been born.

After building a separate stall for the best horse, Li Wei returned to the Brewing Stand and brewed some of every potion he could make.

Strength, Swiftness, Night Vision, Water Breathing, Fire Resistance.

Unfortunately, the Ghast Tear dropped by the Ghast he had killed earlier had fallen into a Lava Pool. Otherwise, he could have made a Potion of Regeneration as well.

Li Wei picked up the Potion of Fire Resistance from the Brewing Stand, his thoughts drifting to Moria.

Didn't expect that, Balrog? Your magic no longer works on me!

Still, aside from its fire magic, that thing's sheer size remained a problem. Even without flames, a Balrog could topple a huge swath of buildings just by charging around.

Forget the Balrog—even against Smaug, Li Wei still had no confidence.

Not enough. Still not enough.

Li Wei looked at the Elven Steel armor on his body.

He was still too weak.

Stronger. He needed to become stronger!

Li Wei looked at the twelve diamonds in his inventory, then at the Nether Portal.

The Nether... still had places like Bastion Remnants. There was a chance of finding Netherite inside, as well as random diamond equipment. It was worth a visit.

Li Wei counted through the items in his inventory, packed Potion of Fire Resistance, Golden Apples, Lembas, and other medicinal and food supplies, then stepped into the Nether once more.

"Let's go this way."

A Bastion Remnant was no easy thing to find, especially now that everything had become real.

Li Wei picked a direction and explored it without wavering, killing skeletons, laying cobblestone paths, crossing through Warped Forests, eating roasted hoglin meat, and drinking potions to swim across lava lakes.

Finally, after several days of exploration, on some day when he had no idea whether it was day or night, he spotted a pitch-black structure.

Pig-headed humanoid creatures wandered within it. Some carried crossbows, some wielded golden swords and golden axes, and a few occasionally wore armor.

Unlike the Zombie Pigmen he had encountered along the way, these piglins seemed more rational, with lively glimmers in their eyes.

Li Wei took out the Golden Boots he had prepared and put them on.

Then, he tried to approach the black fortress.

Achievement Unlocked: Those Were the Days

Several piglins carrying crossbows passed by. They carefully sized up the unfamiliar visitor, gave him a sniff, and ultimately chose to ignore him.

Li Wei breathed a sigh of relief.

He still had some psychological trauma when it came to piglins. The first time he had run into them, he had known nothing and had quickly been beaten up by a crowd.

On top of that, these guys dealt absurdly high damage. Some even carried axes, against which shields were useless. One careless move and he could easily get himself killed.

Since he could avoid fighting now, that was naturally for the best.

However, though he was temporarily safe, Li Wei knew that if he wanted the treasure inside the bastion, he would have to fight these guys sooner or later.

The moment he opened a chest inside the bastion, every piglin nearby would automatically become hostile. So, he needed to find a way to deal with them before that happened.

Li Wei took out Cobblestone and began building, inch by inch, toward the bastion.

Golden armor was not foolproof. It could only fool ordinary piglins; he would still get attacked if he encountered brutes, since they did not care whether he was wearing gold gear.

Along the way, Li Wei carefully avoided those overbearing creatures with fifty health.

If these things had any more health, they could go toe-to-toe with Trolls.

But no matter how strong those brutes were, they were ultimately no match for the cunning wisdom of a devious Block Wizard.

A Piglin Brute wielding a golden axe was diligently patrolling his Territory. Just as he walked into a dead end and prepared to turn around, he suddenly heard several tapping sounds behind him.

When he turned around, he found that in the brief instant he had looked away, a stone wall had appeared behind him and completely sealed off the path.

He could not get out.

The brute was dumbfounded and could only grunt helplessly behind the wall.

Similar incidents occurred throughout the bastion. Not only the brutes, but even ordinary piglin civilians failed to escape the fate of being walled in.

One moment of carelessness, and they would inexplicably find themselves trapped.

A few smarter piglins saw this bizarre method and suddenly recalled a legend called the "Ancient Builder," but no matter what they did, it was already too late.

Li Wei smoothly plundered the wealth of the entire bastion from top to bottom.

Fortunately, he found a pair of Diamond Trousers, a Diamond Pickaxe, a piece of netherite, and a Smithing Template.

Besides that, there were dozens of Gold Ingots he dug up from various hidden spots, along with Golden Carrots, crossbows, Crying Obsidian, and a pile of other miscellaneous items from the chests. His inventory could not even hold it all, so he could only selectively take the valuable items.

His first bastion had yielded a rich haul.

Using the Crying Obsidian he had collected, Li Wei crafted an item: a Respawn Anchor.

This item could only be placed in the Nether. It allowed whoever bound themselves to it to respawn four times, but only in the Nether.

With this, Li Wei could now revive in the Nether as well, without worrying about suddenly dying.

After placing the Respawn Anchor near the portal and charging it with Glowstone, Li Wei did not linger. Nor did he head directly home. Instead, he followed the route from the previous bastion and continued onward.

One piece of netherite was far from enough.

And so, he trekked through the Nether for an entire month.

On this day, Li Wei arrived at another bastion. Using the same method, he sealed off the paths of all the piglins and opened the chests.

A piece of Netherite Scrap lay quietly inside one of them.

"Finally, I have enough."

Li Wei took out a Crafting Table and placed four Gold Ingots and four Netherite Scraps into it.

He crafted his fourth Netherite Ingot.

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