The girl appeared to be around twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with long black hair draped behind her head, carrying a bit of carefree charm and a unique allure.
Her delicate face had skin as snow-white and tender as a baby's, her appearance near perfection.
But what drew even more attention was the icy-cold aura emanating from her entire being; her deep blue pupils carried a cold indifference that kept people at a thousand miles away, her whole body exuding an unmistakable "strangers keep out" vibe.
Fiana saw Loren sitting on the floor with red-rimmed eyes.
A surge of anger instantly rose in her heart.
Hate that iron is not made into steel.
"Loren, isn't it just that the Goblin Bank refused to give you a loan? Isn't it just that a few nobles refused to continue supporting your pioneering efforts?
Even I haven't given up!! What are you crying for??"
Loren turned his head and glanced at the girl in front of him—who could truly be called a heavenly beauty—and slowly shook his head.
"You go out first."
Fiana's brows furrowed tightly, the anger in her heart growing even stronger, and a terrifying pressure began to spread outward.
"You?!"
Loren felt that pressure, his face turning several shades paler, but his pitch-black eyes were like an unsheathed steel blade.
"Fiana, you should know your position. Right now, retract your aura!"
Having a guardian to protect one's personal safety was a privilege only direct descendants of great families possessed.
The Purple Iris Flower Family was one of the top-ranking great families in the Silver Moon Kingdom, and Loren had originally been a direct bloodline descendant.
Moreover, because he had voluntarily given up his right of inheritance and gone to the northern border to become a pioneering lord, he had earned special regard from the Purple Iris Flower Archduke, who specifically assigned an exceptionally powerful guardian to protect his personal safety.
Fiana was Loren's guardian, and one who had reached the platinum rank—a top-tier existence.
Otherwise, during the Blood Moon Day a few days ago when the bloody polluters breached the territory, his predecessor could not possibly have escaped alive from those monsters' mouths.
But no matter how strong the other party's power was, she had no right to glare coldly and angrily at him.
The former Loren was already dead; he was no longer that descendant of the Purple Iris Flower Family, but the eldest son of the Luo family, a descendant of Huaxia.
She could look coldly at the former Loren, but he would not allow himself to be scolded and remain silent like his predecessor had.
Looking at those razor-sharp, blade-like eyes, Fiana felt as though the current Loren had completely changed into a different person; the aura coming from him actually made even her feel a bit of pressure.
Her emotions fluctuated wildly inside; after a moment, she finally suppressed the anger in her heart, her face cold as ice.
"Loren, I am your guardian, not your slave. I am only responsible for protecting your safety."
After saying that, she took out a heavy cloth bag and—bang—the bag slammed onto the table beside him with a dull thud.
"This is 500,000 puke—my savings over all these years. This time, I've done right by you.
Since you don't want me to say more to you, then starting from today, I will only be responsible for your safety. Everything else—I won't care about at all!"
After saying that, she turned and left.
Bang~
Loren watched the door close, and the sharpness in his eyes gradually softened.
The currency system of the Nor world wasn't actually that different from Earth's.
Controlled by the Goblin Bank that spread across the world, 1 puke could buy one black bread on the street; two or three puke were enough for a person to eat their fill.
Its purchasing power was roughly similar to RMB; 1 RMB could also buy a small steamed bun...
500,000 puke... that was equivalent to 500,000 RMB. In this turbulent world, countless people never accumulated that much money in their entire lifetime.
Although Fiana had reached platinum rank, the treatment she received from the Purple Iris Flower Family was only 30,000 puke per month; the real benefits were armor, weapons, and cultivation techniques.
Plus her own various expenses were not small, and she was only in her twenties—clearly, 500,000 puke represented the majority of her savings.
She could have easily sat back and done nothing. An ordinary noble descendant foolishly trying to pioneer in the Endless Wasteland—if he died here, no one would find it strange.
But at the moment when he was at his lowest, not only did the girl not abandon him, she even gave him all her savings...
A knife mouth, but a tofu heart...
Loren's mood was extremely complicated.
In his previous life he had assets worth over a hundred million, with more than twenty million in liquid funds available on his bank card. When he was in university he had already been sending money home to support his little sister. The experience of being "thrown money at by a girl to spend" was truly unfamiliar.
"So this is what it feels like to be kept??"
After being stirred up by Fiana like this, the pain of never being able to see his little sister and mother again eased somewhat. The fortune he had left behind was enough for his two closest family members to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.
After taking several deep breaths, he barely managed to suppress the emotions in his heart.
Slowly standing up, he gave a wry smile and shook his head.
Although 500,000 was a lot, what he needed to do was develop a territory.
Throwing these few hundred thousand in would probably not even make a splash.
He didn't even look at the cloth bag, just pushed it aside toward the round table. Night was approaching now, and the room was very dim.
He casually picked up something resembling a fire starter and lit the candle on the table.
In an instant, the entire room brightened up.
"A candle mixed with monster fat—its brightness isn't inferior to a 20W light bulb; it's almost too bright..."
Looking at the room lit up like daylight, Loren sat on the stool and began to think carefully.
Whether he was angry at Fiana or not, she was still his guardian. He could slowly mend the relationship later.
The problem now was: what should he do next?
What he was facing right now was an utterly rotten mess.
Tens of thousands of years ago in the Nor world, there had been a Twilight of the Gods; all the gods fell and perished, and the entire Nor world was shattered in the divine war.
The divine war caused enormous changes to the world, the most typical being... terrifying life forms appeared in the dimensional planes—the bloody polluters.
Normally they remained peaceful, but every month on the 31st, the normal moon in the sky would retreat, and the blood moon would rise.
The evil beings living in the dimensional planes would crawl out from spatial rifts on every Blood Moon Day and launch attacks on human cities in the Nor Main Plane.
Moreover, the larger the scale of the city built, the more bloody polluters it would attract.
Decker City was the largest city in the northern border of the Silver Moon Kingdom, and beyond the city lay the vast and boundless Endless Wasteland.
Silver Moon Kingdom law stipulated that pioneering lords could freely build their own cities on the Endless Wasteland, and the cities they built would completely belong to them—even commoners could become nobles.
Decker City itself had been built three hundred years ago by a pioneering lord.
Therefore, becoming a pioneering lord on the Endless Wasteland had become something everyone yearned for, despite the extremely high risk.
But for a pioneering lord to truly become a lord, the first thing they had to face was the monthly Blood Moon Day.
Five days ago when the blood moon rose, those brutal and bloodthirsty bloody polluters had breached his territory, turning all the supplies he had spent his entire fortune to purchase into ruins.
And what was even more fatal was that the Demon Archduke bloodline in his body had already begun to awaken. He could not live in a city for a long time—if it was exposed, the only outcome was being hanged.
His predecessor had traveled thousands of miles from the royal capital of the Silver Moon Kingdom to the northern border precisely to build his own city and protect his own safety.
Unless he was willing to hide in dark sewers and live a life of eternal exile in darkness.
Otherwise, becoming a powerful lord was the only way. The world might be vast, but no one would tolerate a Demon Archduke living beside them.
"Although the territory was breached, not all the supplies I previously purchased were destroyed; that counts as having some foundation. If I just let it go, the tens of millions I invested earlier would completely go down the drain.
Moreover, that territory's geographical location is indeed very good. Although there are dangers inside, giving it up just like this would be too much of a pity."
Loren furrowed his brows tightly.
Reorganizing the territory wasn't difficult—as long as he had enough money, he could buy a powerful slave army in minutes to guard the territory for him.
But the biggest problem right now was... no money...
Just as he was pondering a way to break the deadlock, a mechanical voice suddenly sounded in his ear.
"Ding~ Detected that a territory has been obtained. System activating..."
Loren's eyes lit up?? System?!! His mood instantly soared.
But in the next second, his face froze.
"Energy insufficient. System activation failed..."
Fuck, even this kind of thing can happen??