When Wang Lei was finally hit, he saw Lin Xu's message, and his face showed utter despair.

However, he was still able to speak at the last moment:

[Lin Xu, I've already followed a highly skilled senior. If you kill me, you'll definitely face revenge in the future! You'll regret it!]

However, the heavy artillery on Linxu Island has already been activated.

Under the roar of artillery fire, Wang Lei Island had been turned into a sea of ​​fire.

Then Lin Xu saw Wang Lei's last message, and he raised an eyebrow.

Wang Lei's backer, whom he mentioned first, is just a mid-level manager in a company and comes from an ordinary background.

Given Wang Lei's limited qualifications and abilities, it's questionable whether his so-called backer truly considers him a subordinate. How could such a middle manager possibly stand up for Wang Lei?

Moreover, even if the two of them do have some connection, Lin Xu is not worried that such a person would retaliate against him.

When it comes to revenge, Lin Xu is more concerned about the counterattack that the Chen family will definitely launch after Chen Shaojie is killed.

Furthermore, his involvement in the Golden Ruins will likely provoke a backlash from many nobles.

Retaliation at that time would be the real threat.

After all, once you reach the official island area, the veteran island lords can intervene in the activities of the newcomers. Given the strength of those senior island lords, Lin Xu is not confident that he can fight against them.

However, before taking action against Chen Shaojie, Lin Xu had already planned an escape route to buy time for his own development.

Because within the official island lord's sphere of influence, there are territories and borders.

Below the island lord's area of ​​activity lies a vast and immense territory.

That territory could not be truly occupied for some reason, but it was rich in resources and was actually an important property belonging to the official island owner.

However, a large number of void creatures have always existed on the borders of this continent.

Animals like the dark orca and female orcas are said to be quite common in the border region.

Furthermore, there are many powerful void creatures that occasionally gather in large numbers to launch massive attacks on the border.

Once the territory below is occupied by void creatures, that territory will collapse and dissipate, returning to the void, and the official island owner's property will naturally be lost.

Therefore, the nobles have always tried to organize manpower to defend the border.

But for nobles, this kind of long-term fighting and arduous defense of the frontier was something they were absolutely unwilling to do themselves.

Therefore, the nobles have been trying to persuade those commoner island lords to voluntarily go to the frontier and spontaneously resist the void creatures.

After all, there is no resurrection insurance in the official island-owner world, and no noble is willing to be cannon fodder.

Therefore, in order to encourage commoner island lords to "contribute," the nobles once used their supreme authority to establish island rules: any island lord who voluntarily went to the frontier would be granted the status of a guardian and would be protected by the island lord rules.

No island lord is allowed to trespass on the territory of these guardians without cause, and other island lords are also prohibited from taking action against the guardians' islands except during specific events and ceremonies.

In addition to the border commanders, other island lords are also prohibited from giving orders to the guards or arbitrarily assigning tasks.

Moreover, the nobility opened up channels for the guards to obtain noble titles.

If you distinguish yourself in defending the frontier, you will have the opportunity to be granted a lordship.

This title is similar in appearance to a true noble title, possessing noble treatment and qualifications, and even gaining recognition of authority.

However, the title of lord cannot be inherited, and there is no way to provide a channel for one's own people to obtain more titles.

In reality, the position of lord is just a high-level enforcer. On the surface, he enjoys noble privileges, but in essence, he is there to strengthen the guards and make them more loyal enforcers.

Once you become a Guardian, you must guard the frontier. When you first enter an island world, you are responsible for the defense of the lower-level continent. If you advance to a mid-to-high-level island world, you will also be responsible for the defense of the higher-level borders.

Guardians are also prohibited from arbitrarily changing their activity range, and are not allowed to trespass into the core continent area at will.

Becoming a Guardian comes with many restrictions, and you are subject to the command of the border commander and the constraints of military rules.

Moreover, border commanders are usually low-ranking nobles, and if these people are contacted by other nobles, it could cause them trouble.

However, compared to directly entering the world of the official island lord and being besieged by senior nobles, becoming a guardian is indeed a good way out.

Lin Xu had already planned this route, so he didn't consider the consequences at all when he killed Chen Shaojie.

Even if Chen Shaojie could mobilize some power behind the scenes, it would be impossible for him to go against the island's rules established by all the nobles.

If Chen Shaojie wanted to retaliate later, he could only try to extend his influence to the border command and use some means within the rules.

This phase will take much longer.

Lin Xu's development speed far surpasses that of the nobles. As long as he has some more time to develop, he will not be afraid even if an old noble appears in front of him.

As Lin Xu pondered his next plan, Xiao Yu came to his side:

"Master, the island below has been cleared. All the rebels have been killed. Those who were willing to surrender have been sold into mining slavery, which will increase our income."

Lin Xu nodded and reached out to pat Xiaoyu's head:

"Well done."

In the previous battles, he had not killed all of Chen Shaojie's men.

Some slaves had some leeway to surrender due to the different contracts they signed.

Lin Xu directly sold these people into mining slaves, using them as slaves to generate profits.

Once someone has been sold, it's very difficult to find them again, and it's virtually impossible for Chen Shaojie and his team to get any information from them.

Lin Xu now has more than 500 mining slaves under his command.

Even if everything goes well for him every day, his income is still considered to be above average for ordinary people.

At this point, Xiaoyu began to control the island and acquire Wang Lei's territory.

Lin Xu walked toward the Fountain of Life.

He had already placed the water-based crystal into the spring water.

After this period of time, a completely new vortex life form should be able to coalesce.

This kind of life is half a natural phenomenon, lacking complete wisdom and personality, but if combined with the ability of enlightenment, it may yield unexpected surprises.

Lin Xu was very curious about what kind of spirit would be created after this life enlightenment.

He had just arrived at the Fountain of Life and was about to check its condition.

The next moment, the island owner's interface suddenly popped up in front of him.

It wasn't just Lin Xu who was experiencing this; in fact, at this very moment, the entire new player test area of ​​the island world was displaying the same interface.

The beginner phase is halfway through, and the island owner rankings are now officially open.

The rankings for this area are now complete.

[The following is a ranking of island owners by points:]

[1st Place: Xiao Xing]

[2nd Place: Hu Long]

[3rd Place: Li Qi]

[4th Place: White Bluebird]

...

[29th place, Lin Xu]

[30th place, Zhao Ping]

[The above is a ranking of the top 30 island owners in this region based on their points. We encourage all island owners to continue their efforts to earn more points and achieve higher ratings.]

Lin Xu stopped what he was doing and frowned as he looked at the list:

"I only ranked 29th? There's definitely something wrong with this list made by the nobles!"