The Invincible Overlord of Heroes.

There are no fireworks in the other world, but they have their own way of celebrating.

Today is the eve of the New Year. Except for the Qingfeng City Legion who are still far away in the dungeon and have not returned yet, everyone else will get 3-7 days of rest after today's last day of work.

Of course, it is impossible for all employees in some important positions to take a holiday.

For example, the security team, especially during times like this, they cannot rest.

Not only can they not rest, but they have to deploy more manpower to prevent any accidents from occurring during the celebration.

Jimmy is not staying at home for the New Year this year. He led the new army and successfully captured the base city which was guarded by only a few soldiers.

They were destined to spend the New Year in the new city, so Gillon, as the heir of the Martell family, had to rush back to Martell City.

It was a good thing for him to go back, because Jimmy put his focus on Fort Conaston, and his own city of Martell failed to connect with Qingfeng City.

After rushing back home, Jilong needs to open up the trade route from Martell City to Qingfeng City.

This task was not difficult. There were already more than ten post stations within a hundred miles around Qingfeng City. All Jilong had to do was to find a way to connect to a post station.

The road does not need to be built for the time being. It is only necessary to clear the weeds that are one or half a person tall, and clean up the wild buildings and resource points near the trade route.

Make sure that at the beginning of each month, there are no buildings that naturally gather monsters near the trade routes.

Then, they would follow the example of Qingfeng City and build one or two outposts or post stations along a route of dozens of miles to provide food and water to the caravans and pedestrians along the way, and to point the way.

By the way, if there are enough people, they can also drive away the surrounding wild creatures, monsters, etc. to ensure the smooth flow of trade routes.

If conditions permit or there is enough time, it can also be built into a gravel or slab road.

Firstly, there is a clear road; secondly, the ground can remain dry even when it rains or snows; thirdly, it can speed up the progress.

As the saying goes, if you want to get rich, you must first build roads. Therefore, caravans inevitably have to carry a large number of transport vehicles.

It's not that you can't walk on the grass, but you can only walk on it when the weather is good. Otherwise, a slightly heavier vehicle will easily get stuck in the mud, causing great inconvenience.

Jillon is in charge of the city of Martell, while Jimmy needs to continue to sweep the cities and territories of other viscounts and barons after the new year.

Xu Lai asked him not to touch the other two large castle-level cities for the time being.

Both cities belong to Count Aini.

Although his army suffered heavy losses in the field, it was quickly replenished during this period and both cities still had a large number of garrison troops.

Even though the remaining troops are not of high level, they have the support of the hero Eni.

Although Jimmy also recruited some heroes from the sky into the army, firstly, they were not legion commanders, and secondly, there was a huge gap between them and Eni in terms of level and specialization.

Therefore, if they want to launch an attack on the two castles of Aini, Xu Lai or Lena must take action.

As for the two of them, they will have to wait until a month and a half after the first auction is over before they have the time and energy to take action.

Therefore, let Aini jump around for another half a month. Anyway, he has only accumulated troops for two months at most, and it is impossible for him to replenish them faster than Xu Lai.

This is Xu Lai’s first New Year in the other world. Although it is not the Spring Festival, it is also commemorative.

But now that he is a lord, he can't lock himself up in the castle and enjoy this rare sexual pleasure with his wives.

Many celebration ceremonies require Xu Lai to appear in person before they can begin, such as giving New Year speeches and distributing New Year gifts.

In other cities, distributing New Year gifts is basically a ritual-like program.

The lord, his wife, or other characters such as the young lady of the lord's family would symbolically distribute some bread and pastries.

If you are lucky and come early, you may be able to get something, but most people have no hope of that.

To put it bluntly, most of the so-called New Year activities are just a show to show off their noble status as aristocratic lords.

Xu Lai is a more pragmatic person. He doesn't like to be in the spotlight, nor does he like the feeling of being surrounded by people.

The New Year gift segment still exists and is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. on New Year's Eve and end at 5 p.m.

However, it was not Xu who distributed it, but rather municipal halls, interior departments, council halls, village offices and other institutions at all levels.

All the settled families had firewood, meat, oil, salt, rice, noodles, sauce, vinegar, tea, and even precious raw silk, brocade, and sugar shipped from the Southern Empire.

Of course, the latter is not for ordinary people, but for municipal officials, the Aboka brothers, Aaron and others.

A world where everyone is equal is impossible, and Xu Lai has no intention of creating such a world.

The celebration begins on the eve of the New Year and lasts until the third day after the New Year.

In previous years, there would be various large-scale activities, performances, banquets, etc. during these days.

This year, however, there is clearly not much of a festive atmosphere. Apart from the lights and decorations in every household, even the number of people in the pub is just a little more than usual.

In the past, there were activities on the grassland such as archery, horse racing, and wrestling, but this year, not many people were interested in participating.

Hancock, the newly appointed president of the Mercenary Guild in Qingfeng City, originally wanted to take advantage of this good time to make a name for himself, but no one was enthusiastic.

There is no way. Only after the second half of this year will the grassland have a few days of peace.

Especially in emerging cities like Qingfeng City, people who can run here are either unable to bear the exploitation or their families were destroyed when the orcs invaded.

The closer it gets to the New Year, the more sadness fills my heart.

Relatively speaking, Qingfeng City is relatively better. At least there are officials taking the lead in organizing various activities, and even if the residents are not very interested, they will still come to support.

People don't give much face to new people like Hancock, but in official activities, Xu Lai is represented.

The residents of Qingfeng City are quite grateful to Xu Lai, so they are quite supportive of him.

In other cities, there were few people walking on the streets, let alone celebratory activities.

But even so, the grassland area is as good as it can be compared to other places.

In many places in the Northern Empire, because the slaughter by the demons from hell was so severe, almost every family was in mourning and had no time to celebrate the New Year.

It’s not to say that nine out of ten houses in the Northern Empire are empty, but at least half of the land in the Northern Empire has been slaughtered by the demons of hell, and the population in these lands is almost only one in ten left.

This is the case with the Northern Empire, not to mention the Western Empire.

The Western Empire was completely occupied by the enemy. The temple was still there and the coalition of nobles had not been defeated, so there was still a chance of escape.

Today, there are only sporadic resistance forces left in the entire Western Empire, and they are mainly composed of advent heroes.

The noble coalition had already been beaten to pieces. If the Pope had not intervened, the temple would not have been able to maintain its integrity, let alone escape unscathed.

The entire Western Empire was filled with grief and sorrow. No one was willing to celebrate or even remember the New Year. Even the once most prosperous imperial capital, where grand celebrations were held every year, was completely silent this year.

The priests only prayed for the coming New Year, for the Pope who was still seriously ill in bed, and for His Majesty the God of War in the middle of the night.

Xu Lai didn’t know whether there was a custom of staying up all night at the beginning of the new year in this world.

But that night, Xu Lai invited all the heroes who came from heaven whose names he knew and who felt somewhat familiar to him.

There were also some close subordinates, such as Aaron, Urdola, Village Chief Lazi, and Elena, who were all called into the castle to attend the dinner together.

They clinked glasses, passed cups around, and talked happily.

Xu Lai did not force the others to stay up together, but no one present had any intention of leaving.

First of all, it is rare for everyone to see so many of Xu’s people here.

Secondly, I haven't seen Xu Lai for a long time, although he said at the beginning that I could leave after three rounds of drinks.

However, Xu Lai might not know who came first, after all, he was the last to enter.

But whoever leaves first must be in full view of everyone.

Therefore, Xu Lai did not leave, and no one among the others would be willing to leave even if their houses collapsed.

It was rare for Xu Lai to indulge himself. He didn't usually drink and his alcohol tolerance was very average.

But in this life, his physical condition is too high. Even though his alcohol tolerance is average, he sobers up very quickly.

But as a lord, he can't drink less wine.

Besides, all the guests present were invited by him.

He drinks once, and then others drink once. This should be the most basic thing.

Of course, as the person with the highest status present, if Xu Lai didn't want to drink, just showing some appreciation, or even just raising the glass, would already be considered giving enough face.

But he is not the kind of person who likes to show off. Besides, it only happens once a year. No matter how late he drinks or how drunk he gets, he will have nothing else to do tomorrow.

He simply accepted everyone who came and had a drink with them.

Nearing midnight, Elena, a few priests familiar to Xu Lai, and Anna rented a room in the castle to pray.

The rest of the people were basically drunk, especially heroes like Wei Yihong who were of lower levels and had poorer attributes.

As soon as 12 o'clock arrives, all recruitment quotas in all recruitment buildings inside and outside the city will be refreshed.

At the same time, the oracle for the first month of the new year also arrived as expected.

“At the beginning of the new year, this month will receive a double bonus of magic moon effects.

In the Moon of Sorrow, the morale of all Empire, Fortress, and Tower creatures decreases by 10 points and their luck decreases by 2 points.

In the Moon of Hope, the base growth rate of all Empire, Fortress, and Tower recruitment buildings is doubled. "

As soon as the oracle was spoken, Xu Lai felt an indescribable sadness in his heart, and it seemed that he had no interest in doing anything.

It wasn't just him. After the oracle was delivered, the cheerful atmosphere in the banquet hall dimmed in the blink of an eye.

Those who had been toasting each other before now just raised their glasses silently and looked at each other without saying a word. No one was willing to speak anymore.

The Moon of Sorrow affects more than just the morale of the recruited warriors. It will have a significant impact on the entire Alliance of Light.

On Xu Lai's side, he has a record of repeated victories, powerful Seraphim and Holy Light Knights, the only 9th-level knight, as well as leadership skills and the blessing of the statue of the god of war.

Even so, the side effects of a 10-point drop in morale are so obvious.

The weakening of the luck attribute by 2 points is equivalent to that every person in the light camp has suffered a weakening of at least one high-level treasure.

Xu Laidu was like this. The other troops in the Alliance of Light, especially the major empires, basically had more losses than wins. Those who could maintain a morale of 70 points were considered elite.

With this reduction, if there is even the slightest disadvantage on the battlefield, the enemies will immediately scatter.

If they are not heroes of the empire, they basically have leadership skills as standard. Heroes of slightly higher levels also have high levels of leadership skills, which can effectively prevent the loss of high-level creatures.

This alone was a fatal blow to the Alliance of Light, which was already on the brink of collapse, not to mention the lucky collateral damage.

But fortunately, after the attack, the Alliance of Light was given a glimmer of hope. The reward of doubling the basic growth rate was not small.

Especially for a city like Qingfeng City, if the basic growth rate is doubled, 16 angels can be brought out from Yunzhong City alone.

Moreover, the growth rate of the Cloud City in the wild is also doubled. The dungeon can provide two, and the Imperial Capital Lionheart City plus the wild can provide 12.

With the bonus of this special month, 30 top-level creatures alone can be recruited at once, and soldiers of other levels must start at a minimum of several hundred.

Before Xu Lai could finish the calculation in his mind, the statue of the god of war standing outside the castle gate suddenly flashed with golden light.

However, not long after the oracle was revealed, the prayers of the priests had ended.

The God of War cannot change the rules, and it is impossible to weaken or erase the effects of the Moon of Sorrow, but the statue of the God of War has the function of boosting morale.

Under the flashing golden light, the morale boosted by the statue of the God of War just offset the Moon of Sorrow.

For the people in Qingfeng City, apart from the fact that their luck has been a little worse this month, the impact is not that big.

And with Swan Lake behind them, everyone can drink a cup of Swan Lake water and maintain good luck until the next battle.

The morale of Xu Lai and others is already at full value even without relying on the bonus of the statue of the God of War.

The golden light of the statue of the God of War just dispels the sad effect brought by the Moon of Sorrow.

"It's getting late, everyone go back and have a good rest.

Tomorrow, those who should celebrate will celebrate, those who should be on duty will be on duty, and everything will remain the same as before.

I just hope that next year, I can still see you all in this banquet hall."

After saying that, Xu Lai stood up and was the first to leave.

Only Xu Lai left first, and the others dared to leave.

Harris, the castle's steward, personally held a magic lamp and saw off the guests on behalf of Xu Lai.

Everyone left one after another, and after walking out of the castle, they all bowed to the statue of the god of war without exception.

Even those heroes who came from heaven and the former atheists dared not show the slightest disrespect when approaching the statue of the god of war. (End of this chapter)